There is this wise saying that one does not know the value of what he is holding until he loses it. For those of us who have taken electricity for granted, the reality of this wise saying dawned on us, when for two days – Christmas Eve, December 24 and Christmas Day, December 25, 2010 – some communities in Tema, Nungua and Teshie were without electricity.
Power outages are nothing new to the Ghanaian public and power failures at any time of the day do not make news for obvious reasons. But it was still an experience too painful to bear that of all days, Christmas Day and the day preceding it should be spent in darkness.
This is a period when almost every household, even the not-well-to-do, tries by all means including collaterality (with apologies to oil and gas) to fill the refrigerator with fresh meat and other perishable food items for the celebration.
All these went bad because the engineers at ECG could not rectify whatever problem it was which triggered the power blackout on Friday, December 24, 2010.
Information from the nation’s sole power distributor was scanty while desperate and frustrated consumers had to do guess work of their own. But it was not difficult to blame the fault on damaged equipment which gave up either for old age or negligence or a combination of both.
By now not many people will claim ignorance of the challenges facing power generation, transmission and distribution in the country. We are aware of obsolete and overused equipment and installations. We know of inadequate facilities that have failed to meet increased population density and new human settlements. We know that power generation had excessively relied on nature, especially in the immediate past when the Akosombo and Kpong dams were the main sources of electricity generation for the country.
We cannot lose sight of the human factors which include bad management practices, incompetence, pilfering and sheer sabotage by gangsters who for personal gains vandalise installations of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
Hopefully, with thermal generation and with abundant gas from the West African Gas Pipeline Project and from our own Jubilee Field, we are getting close to the situation whereby our worry will not be about power generation but about transmission and distribution.
Even though as consumers we have always been disappointed with the failures of ECG in particular, because they deal with us directly, the Volta River Authority (VRA) and GRIDCo, some of us have come to appreciate the hard facts about their challenges.
It is, however, about time we reduced the excuses and approach issues of the power sector with more seriousness. Now that we have suddenly found ourselves in a middle-income country that is an oil-exporting country in Africa, we should expect more people with business motives to be interested in our country. And nothing can be more frustrating to a business person than an erratic power supply system, especially when production was expected to be at its peak. ECG and the other service providers in the energy sector must redouble their efforts to make power outages things of the past.
I do not know the institution that manages the Accra-Tema Motorway, but I know the Ministry of Roads and Highways has contracted a company to collect tolls on the motorway. I, therefore, hope my concern will not be misdirected if I, on behalf of other motorists, appeal to the ministry to use the same vim it applied to collect tolls on the motorway to ensure that the reflective markings on the motorway that have long faded are restored without further delay.
This is a major road carrying heavy traffic between Accra and Tema and beyond, yet this is a road bareft of any reflective markings. We do not need any consultant to tell us that the motorway in its present form poses a threat to life, especially in the night when every motorist determines his/her fair portion of the road.
Providing reflective markings in the middle and the edges of the motorway in particular and other major roads in the country should not be ignored for the sake of lack of funds, which has become the unending song we always sing. It is good to ask motorists to be careful when driving. It is equally good to make the roads suitable for good driving.
Still on making our roads safe for both motorists and pedestrians, it is unfortunate the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit of the Ghana Police Service has not been able to manage the arbitrariness of the drivers, especially commercial drivers who have turned the edges or shoulders of Accra roads into special lanes for their use.
The traffic regulations are clear but we are unable to enforce them, thus not only placing the lives of law-abiding citizens at risk, but very often making it look as if it is a crime to obey the laws of the road.
We have lived with too many excuses for our failures. Let us resolve that in the New Year, we shall register more positive results and get our systems functioning instead of offering excuses for our human failures. Thanks to ECG, mine and that of thousands of others could not be described as a merry Christmas.
I wish to thank my readers whose interest continue to sustain this column. May the New Year be a prosperous one for all.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
HURRAY AT LAST (DEC 21, 2010)
Anticipating the arrival of something new and probably big can be exciting and sometimes unnerving because of the numerous wild ideas that will be struggling for space in your imagination.
Put yourself in the shoes of a young couple preparing for and anticipating how things will be on their wedding day.
What about the couple expecting their first baby? When, finally, the day comes and the event has taken place, there is a kind of feeling not matched with the anxiety and excitement associated with the long wait.
A few years ago when South Africa was given the honour of hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the whole continent shared in the excitement and waited expectantly for the day to come.
South Africa 2010 is now history and at best we can only look back with some painful memories at the penalty miss by Asamoah Gyan which deprived us of the historic opportunity of going into the semi-finals and, who knows, beyond.
Asamoah Gyan, the player who made us cry in South Africa, has gone on to earn the admiration of many and crowned a year’s sterling performance with the award of the BBC African Footballer of the Year 2010.
Beyond that, South Africa 2010 is a pale shadow in our memories just six months after it ended.
In June 2007, an elated President John Agyekum Kufuor, with cup in hand, announced to the joy of the nation the discovery of oil in commercial quantities offshore around Cape Three Points in the western part of the country. No sooner had that historic information been allowed to soak into our system then the long wait and calculations began.
Even though it was generally agreed that the oil find was in the Western Region of Ghana, there were skirmishes by some tribal chiefs to claim the portion of the vast ocean where the discovery was made, apparently for purposes of claiming royalties in future, if there would be any.
There were still others who felt the story was too sweet to be true. They took our minds several years back into history when a similar announcement about the discovery of oil was made but which faded into nothingness. We were, therefore, advised to treat the new announcement with cautious optimism.
As the days rolled into weeks and months, it became increasingly clear that Ghana was heading towards becoming a major oil producer, a realisation which brought with it its own anxieties. That was because oil news is not always good news.
Apart from the environmental hazards which oil production entails, there is the bigger question of how to share oil money. We have always made reference to Nigeria because it is a close neighbour who offers one of the best examples of how a country can be so rich in oil resources but cannot produce enough to fuel local industries and fill the tanks of its vehicles.
Many Ghanaians may not have heard of an organisation called MEND – the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. This organisation has gone beyond a pressure group to become a full-fledged fighting force battling the Federal government over oil revenue in Nigeria.
The 1967-70 civil war in Nigeria, which saw the birth of the short-lived Republic of Biafra in the former Eastern State of Nigeria, had more to do with oil than anything else. So when MEND was formed, it was to retrace the footsteps of Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu’s secessionist movement of the 1960s.
Nigeria’s experience apart, there is the Cabinda Province of Angola where secessionist instincts are high because of the belief that with oil, the people of Cabinda can lead independent and prosperous lives. The people of southern Sudan, led by the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA,) for years fought for autonomy mainly because much of the oil in The Sudan is on their territory. Incidentally, for religious and racial reasons, most parts of the south are seriously under-developed.
Now that the south, under a peace agreement signed in January 2005, is to determine autonomy or unity with the north in a referendum in January 2011, the whole world is waiting with some kind of apprehension for the outcome, for on one side, it means full control of vital natural resources which were denied in the past, while on the other side, it means the end to a limitless access to free flowing oil.
So you see, oil can bring disparities and internal conflicts or serve as preys to predators as were the cases of Iraq and Iran in the Persian Gulf, which became attractions to major western powers and contributed greatly to the Iran/Iraq war of 1980/90 and the invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies under the guise of dismantling Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
With all these as a guide, it was not strange that everybody became an adviser overnight in oil matters, especially on how the revenue of Ghana’s oil should be managed. Incidentally, the politicians, who actually pose the greatest danger to the security of the country’s oil resources, are the most vocal in providing the magic formula for the management of the revenue from this natural resource.
The people of the Western Region, led by their chiefs and youth, did not hide their determination not to be outsmarted by anybody when they came out with their own calculations and settled on 10 per cent of the Ghana’s share of the oil revenue to be paid into a special account for their use as they deem fit.
You cannot fault them if even you think their demand was outrageous and has the potential to create serious problems for a unitary state like Ghana. They have history to guide them. They have seen enough of their timber, cocoa and mineral wealth vanishing without anything on the ground showing that the region is after all, not a desolate area.
Not only is the region poor in infrastructure, but beyond their region, they could see the poverty in Obuasi, once reputed to be one of the richest gold mines in the world. They could see the emptiness of Akwatia, Kade and other diamond-rich areas where the people are hanging only on hope for survival. So they saw the discovery as the last opportunity to redeem what they have lost over the years.
For some of us, the chiefs and people of the Western Region are making a strong case for the whole country. Never should we allow a few greedy vampires, parading as political leaders to enter into alliances with foreign interests to siphon away our national wealth again. But for bad political leadership, this country should not be where it is today, and be making desperate noises about oil discovery.
The long wait came to an end on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 when President John Evans Atta Mills turned a wheel to symbolically open the valves to allow the oil to flow. This time, people are not just ready to sit and watch. The debate is still going on. How do we manage the oil revenue so that we do not end up being paupers in the midst of plenty? Who takes control of what?
The politicians on both sides of the divide are doing their best to justify their positions. How sincere they are can only be a matter of time. Ghanaians will, however, do well for themselves if they avoid falling into the traps of partisanship in their discussions.
We may be talking today as supporters of one political party or another. What we may not know is that when they begin to cart away our oil as booties the rest of us will remain on one side and the rapists on the other side, no matter their political colour.
Our President has turned the wheel, and the rest of us have shouted hurray. Let us not drop guard. Let us not reduce the debate to a National Democratic Congress (NDC) and a New Patriotic Party (NPP) affair. It is our life and our survival. It is our life today and tomorrow.
For years we have made a lot of noise of being major producers of cocoa beans, timber, gold, diamond, manganese and others. There is nothing in our lives as a people to reflect the wealth these natural resources have given to this country. That is why we should not fight among ourselves over oil. We need to join forces to watch over those who claim they are leading us so that we are not swerved again.
We have said the first hurray to welcome the first flow. Let us wait for the big roads, the schools, the medical facilities and housing estates, the uninterrupted electricity service and the cheerful smiles. Then we can say the second and third hurray.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Put yourself in the shoes of a young couple preparing for and anticipating how things will be on their wedding day.
What about the couple expecting their first baby? When, finally, the day comes and the event has taken place, there is a kind of feeling not matched with the anxiety and excitement associated with the long wait.
A few years ago when South Africa was given the honour of hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the whole continent shared in the excitement and waited expectantly for the day to come.
South Africa 2010 is now history and at best we can only look back with some painful memories at the penalty miss by Asamoah Gyan which deprived us of the historic opportunity of going into the semi-finals and, who knows, beyond.
Asamoah Gyan, the player who made us cry in South Africa, has gone on to earn the admiration of many and crowned a year’s sterling performance with the award of the BBC African Footballer of the Year 2010.
Beyond that, South Africa 2010 is a pale shadow in our memories just six months after it ended.
In June 2007, an elated President John Agyekum Kufuor, with cup in hand, announced to the joy of the nation the discovery of oil in commercial quantities offshore around Cape Three Points in the western part of the country. No sooner had that historic information been allowed to soak into our system then the long wait and calculations began.
Even though it was generally agreed that the oil find was in the Western Region of Ghana, there were skirmishes by some tribal chiefs to claim the portion of the vast ocean where the discovery was made, apparently for purposes of claiming royalties in future, if there would be any.
There were still others who felt the story was too sweet to be true. They took our minds several years back into history when a similar announcement about the discovery of oil was made but which faded into nothingness. We were, therefore, advised to treat the new announcement with cautious optimism.
As the days rolled into weeks and months, it became increasingly clear that Ghana was heading towards becoming a major oil producer, a realisation which brought with it its own anxieties. That was because oil news is not always good news.
Apart from the environmental hazards which oil production entails, there is the bigger question of how to share oil money. We have always made reference to Nigeria because it is a close neighbour who offers one of the best examples of how a country can be so rich in oil resources but cannot produce enough to fuel local industries and fill the tanks of its vehicles.
Many Ghanaians may not have heard of an organisation called MEND – the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. This organisation has gone beyond a pressure group to become a full-fledged fighting force battling the Federal government over oil revenue in Nigeria.
The 1967-70 civil war in Nigeria, which saw the birth of the short-lived Republic of Biafra in the former Eastern State of Nigeria, had more to do with oil than anything else. So when MEND was formed, it was to retrace the footsteps of Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu’s secessionist movement of the 1960s.
Nigeria’s experience apart, there is the Cabinda Province of Angola where secessionist instincts are high because of the belief that with oil, the people of Cabinda can lead independent and prosperous lives. The people of southern Sudan, led by the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA,) for years fought for autonomy mainly because much of the oil in The Sudan is on their territory. Incidentally, for religious and racial reasons, most parts of the south are seriously under-developed.
Now that the south, under a peace agreement signed in January 2005, is to determine autonomy or unity with the north in a referendum in January 2011, the whole world is waiting with some kind of apprehension for the outcome, for on one side, it means full control of vital natural resources which were denied in the past, while on the other side, it means the end to a limitless access to free flowing oil.
So you see, oil can bring disparities and internal conflicts or serve as preys to predators as were the cases of Iraq and Iran in the Persian Gulf, which became attractions to major western powers and contributed greatly to the Iran/Iraq war of 1980/90 and the invasion of Iraq by the US and its allies under the guise of dismantling Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.
With all these as a guide, it was not strange that everybody became an adviser overnight in oil matters, especially on how the revenue of Ghana’s oil should be managed. Incidentally, the politicians, who actually pose the greatest danger to the security of the country’s oil resources, are the most vocal in providing the magic formula for the management of the revenue from this natural resource.
The people of the Western Region, led by their chiefs and youth, did not hide their determination not to be outsmarted by anybody when they came out with their own calculations and settled on 10 per cent of the Ghana’s share of the oil revenue to be paid into a special account for their use as they deem fit.
You cannot fault them if even you think their demand was outrageous and has the potential to create serious problems for a unitary state like Ghana. They have history to guide them. They have seen enough of their timber, cocoa and mineral wealth vanishing without anything on the ground showing that the region is after all, not a desolate area.
Not only is the region poor in infrastructure, but beyond their region, they could see the poverty in Obuasi, once reputed to be one of the richest gold mines in the world. They could see the emptiness of Akwatia, Kade and other diamond-rich areas where the people are hanging only on hope for survival. So they saw the discovery as the last opportunity to redeem what they have lost over the years.
For some of us, the chiefs and people of the Western Region are making a strong case for the whole country. Never should we allow a few greedy vampires, parading as political leaders to enter into alliances with foreign interests to siphon away our national wealth again. But for bad political leadership, this country should not be where it is today, and be making desperate noises about oil discovery.
The long wait came to an end on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 when President John Evans Atta Mills turned a wheel to symbolically open the valves to allow the oil to flow. This time, people are not just ready to sit and watch. The debate is still going on. How do we manage the oil revenue so that we do not end up being paupers in the midst of plenty? Who takes control of what?
The politicians on both sides of the divide are doing their best to justify their positions. How sincere they are can only be a matter of time. Ghanaians will, however, do well for themselves if they avoid falling into the traps of partisanship in their discussions.
We may be talking today as supporters of one political party or another. What we may not know is that when they begin to cart away our oil as booties the rest of us will remain on one side and the rapists on the other side, no matter their political colour.
Our President has turned the wheel, and the rest of us have shouted hurray. Let us not drop guard. Let us not reduce the debate to a National Democratic Congress (NDC) and a New Patriotic Party (NPP) affair. It is our life and our survival. It is our life today and tomorrow.
For years we have made a lot of noise of being major producers of cocoa beans, timber, gold, diamond, manganese and others. There is nothing in our lives as a people to reflect the wealth these natural resources have given to this country. That is why we should not fight among ourselves over oil. We need to join forces to watch over those who claim they are leading us so that we are not swerved again.
We have said the first hurray to welcome the first flow. Let us wait for the big roads, the schools, the medical facilities and housing estates, the uninterrupted electricity service and the cheerful smiles. Then we can say the second and third hurray.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Farmers Day: Beyond the fanfare, what next?
By Kofi Akordor
The days, weeks and months following December 31, 1981 were not good for this country. It is almost 30 years ago and the human brain has been designed in such a way that it can dull even the most painful of experiences so that they do not eat up the body.
It will, therefore, not be surprising if many of those who were alive at the time and are still alive today fail to remember many of the hardships of those days or at best are only able to recollect faint memories of one of the darkest periods in our country’s history.
There are others who wish that the brain worked like the mobile phones of today. If it were so, they could have just removed the chips of that era and forget everything.
On December 31, 1981, a few hours before the country was ushered into a new year, the government of Dr Hilla Limann was brought to an abrupt end. The end came when the President of the Republic was enjoying the Christmas/New Year with soldiers at the Burma Camp.
Events following that day could best be described by individuals, each according to how he/she perceived that political exercise and how he/she fared under the system. But as a country, there was a general agreement — things were hard and different interpretations were given by way of explanation. However, one thing was common on the lips of many — the gods were annoyed for the blood of the innocent which was shed to desecrate the land.
First, as if the water gates in Heaven were locked, there was no rain for almost the whole part of the year and the land became dry and patchy. Then, as if ignited by a huge spark, a large part of the dry land went up in flames.
The country suffered a serious drought which members of that generation had nothing to compare with. The land was ravaged by bush fires, stripping it of the remaining vegetation. The cocoa farms were gone, so were food crops.
By the end of 1983, two years after the launch of the 31st December Revolution, the Mother of all Revolutions, there was unprecedented famine in the land. There was very little to go round in terms of food and those were the days when hungry people dipped their hands into frying pans to remove half-cooked cassava from boiling oil.
As if we had not suffered enough to atone for our sins, President Shehu Shagari of Nigeria offloaded hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians then seeking economic refuge in that country on Ghana after giving them a one-month ultimatum to return home.
The exodus of the returnees (as they were called) back to the homeland was managed in a way which gave a government struggling locally and internationally for recognition some respectability. And that was how the country began its march towards normalcy.
The heavens opened and the rains came. The bowels of the earth generously received the seeds planted by our farmers and in that year — 1984 — there was a good harvest which called for celebration. That was how, in December 1984, what could be described as a farmers’ rally was held at Osino in the Eastern Region and on that occasion some farmers were given token gifts, not necessarily prizes, for their determination, hard work and for reviving the country’s agriculture.
That modest Osino meeting, at which Captain Kojo Tsikata (retd), a member of the then Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), was the special guest became the first National Farmers Day when the government decided to set aside a day to celebrate farmers in the country.
The National Farmers Day has since undergone a lot of transformation and has become a huge platform for many corporate institutions to market themselves, while the award winners have become better off with the enhancement of the prizes.
Twenty-six years on, many Ghanaians are getting alarmed that if care is not taken, the Farmers’ Day, will remain an occasion for making speeches and throwing a few goodies at farmers without elevating agriculture from its present subsistence level to a major business capable of generating wealth and employment and playing its role as a major backbone of the economy.
Agriculture, or food production for that matter, is still essentially at the subsistence level because we have, over the years, failed to modernise the sector through irrigation and mechanised farming, while at the same time denying entrepreneurs who are determined to go into massive commercial farming the needed funding.
It is unfortunate that Ghana, for its size and land resources, should continue to expend a lot of money on food imports. President John Evans Atta Mills himself announced in Somanya at the weekend during the National Farmers Day that the country committed, on an annual basis, an amount of US$1 billion for the importation of food that could be produced locally, with rice imports alone taking 50 per cent of that amount.
This does not speak well of a country that has been celebrating the achievement of farmers with such fanfare and glamour for almost three decades.
It is time we go beyond the fanfare and the speeches and raised the stakes to higher level. By now we should realise that a few parcels here and there to selected farmers will not raise agricultural production beyond the subsistence level if pragmatic steps are not taken to change the face of agriculture in the country.
We have enough water resources that flow wastefully into the sea that could support irrigation farming all-year round. We must move from the machete and hoe to serious mechanised farming on a large-scale. We need to enhance rural infrastructure such as roads, energy and water supply to have a profound improvement on farming in the country.
Apart from capital injection, we need to invest in storage and processing facilities to reduce post-harvest losses, while adding value to farm produce and enhancing their market value.
A few weeks ago, it was very pathetic to see baskets of tomatoes literally abandoned along the highways because there were no markets for them. Other crops suffer the same fate during the harvest season.
Most important, we need to discourage the excessive importation of basic food items that could be produced locally. The tendency among top government officials, including ministers of state who should be leading the crusade for local food production themselves becoming net importers of rice and other commodities should be effectively discouraged.
The National Farmers Day can remain on the national calendar but the best form of reward to farmers and for that matter all those who play significant roles in the production chain will be the creation of an environment that will make farming a very rewarding and dignifying business.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
The days, weeks and months following December 31, 1981 were not good for this country. It is almost 30 years ago and the human brain has been designed in such a way that it can dull even the most painful of experiences so that they do not eat up the body.
It will, therefore, not be surprising if many of those who were alive at the time and are still alive today fail to remember many of the hardships of those days or at best are only able to recollect faint memories of one of the darkest periods in our country’s history.
There are others who wish that the brain worked like the mobile phones of today. If it were so, they could have just removed the chips of that era and forget everything.
On December 31, 1981, a few hours before the country was ushered into a new year, the government of Dr Hilla Limann was brought to an abrupt end. The end came when the President of the Republic was enjoying the Christmas/New Year with soldiers at the Burma Camp.
Events following that day could best be described by individuals, each according to how he/she perceived that political exercise and how he/she fared under the system. But as a country, there was a general agreement — things were hard and different interpretations were given by way of explanation. However, one thing was common on the lips of many — the gods were annoyed for the blood of the innocent which was shed to desecrate the land.
First, as if the water gates in Heaven were locked, there was no rain for almost the whole part of the year and the land became dry and patchy. Then, as if ignited by a huge spark, a large part of the dry land went up in flames.
The country suffered a serious drought which members of that generation had nothing to compare with. The land was ravaged by bush fires, stripping it of the remaining vegetation. The cocoa farms were gone, so were food crops.
By the end of 1983, two years after the launch of the 31st December Revolution, the Mother of all Revolutions, there was unprecedented famine in the land. There was very little to go round in terms of food and those were the days when hungry people dipped their hands into frying pans to remove half-cooked cassava from boiling oil.
As if we had not suffered enough to atone for our sins, President Shehu Shagari of Nigeria offloaded hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians then seeking economic refuge in that country on Ghana after giving them a one-month ultimatum to return home.
The exodus of the returnees (as they were called) back to the homeland was managed in a way which gave a government struggling locally and internationally for recognition some respectability. And that was how the country began its march towards normalcy.
The heavens opened and the rains came. The bowels of the earth generously received the seeds planted by our farmers and in that year — 1984 — there was a good harvest which called for celebration. That was how, in December 1984, what could be described as a farmers’ rally was held at Osino in the Eastern Region and on that occasion some farmers were given token gifts, not necessarily prizes, for their determination, hard work and for reviving the country’s agriculture.
That modest Osino meeting, at which Captain Kojo Tsikata (retd), a member of the then Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), was the special guest became the first National Farmers Day when the government decided to set aside a day to celebrate farmers in the country.
The National Farmers Day has since undergone a lot of transformation and has become a huge platform for many corporate institutions to market themselves, while the award winners have become better off with the enhancement of the prizes.
Twenty-six years on, many Ghanaians are getting alarmed that if care is not taken, the Farmers’ Day, will remain an occasion for making speeches and throwing a few goodies at farmers without elevating agriculture from its present subsistence level to a major business capable of generating wealth and employment and playing its role as a major backbone of the economy.
Agriculture, or food production for that matter, is still essentially at the subsistence level because we have, over the years, failed to modernise the sector through irrigation and mechanised farming, while at the same time denying entrepreneurs who are determined to go into massive commercial farming the needed funding.
It is unfortunate that Ghana, for its size and land resources, should continue to expend a lot of money on food imports. President John Evans Atta Mills himself announced in Somanya at the weekend during the National Farmers Day that the country committed, on an annual basis, an amount of US$1 billion for the importation of food that could be produced locally, with rice imports alone taking 50 per cent of that amount.
This does not speak well of a country that has been celebrating the achievement of farmers with such fanfare and glamour for almost three decades.
It is time we go beyond the fanfare and the speeches and raised the stakes to higher level. By now we should realise that a few parcels here and there to selected farmers will not raise agricultural production beyond the subsistence level if pragmatic steps are not taken to change the face of agriculture in the country.
We have enough water resources that flow wastefully into the sea that could support irrigation farming all-year round. We must move from the machete and hoe to serious mechanised farming on a large-scale. We need to enhance rural infrastructure such as roads, energy and water supply to have a profound improvement on farming in the country.
Apart from capital injection, we need to invest in storage and processing facilities to reduce post-harvest losses, while adding value to farm produce and enhancing their market value.
A few weeks ago, it was very pathetic to see baskets of tomatoes literally abandoned along the highways because there were no markets for them. Other crops suffer the same fate during the harvest season.
Most important, we need to discourage the excessive importation of basic food items that could be produced locally. The tendency among top government officials, including ministers of state who should be leading the crusade for local food production themselves becoming net importers of rice and other commodities should be effectively discouraged.
The National Farmers Day can remain on the national calendar but the best form of reward to farmers and for that matter all those who play significant roles in the production chain will be the creation of an environment that will make farming a very rewarding and dignifying business.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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