GARDJA REMINDS PRESIDENT-ELECT ON CHALLENGES

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The Ghana Agricultural and Rural Development Journalists Association, GARDJA, the local Chapter of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists, has congratulated the President-elect, Nana Akufo-Addo, on his election victory to become the 5th President of the fourth Republic.

 According to GARDJA, which has a membership of 100 Ghanaian Journalists and Communication Workers who are striving to bring issues relating to the agric sector into national attention, the victory of Nana Akufo-Addo was anchored on his flamboyant campaign promises, thereby engendering high expectations among the citizenry for him to deliver. 

A statement jointly signed by the President, Richmond Frimpong, Secretary-General, Ernest Adu and the Policy Advisor, Joseph Opoku Gakpo, and issued to Radio Ghana in Kumasi, GARDJA reminded the in-coming government of Nana Akufo-Addo of the numerous challenges and great potential of the agric sector to create employment for the youth as well as feed the nation. 

The Statement noted with regret that the sector, in recent years, has suffered a substantial decline either as a result of mismanagement or certain natural actors. Notable among these is the decrease in agriculture’s contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product from 21-point-one per cent in 2014 to 19 per cent in 2015. 

Similarly, agricultural growth, according to GARDJA, also declined from four-point-six per cent to zero-point-zero-four per cent during the, while the crops sub-sector suffered a negative growth. On the cocoa sub-sector, the statement noted that production saw a 22 per cent less output in the 2014 and the 2015 seasons. 

It said success five governments have only paid lip-service to investment in agricultural development, adding that even the regional and district MOFA offices are reeling under huge funding challenges leading to disconnection in their power supply among others. 

In the view of GARDJA, the agric sector can only remain pivotal in the national economy if the Nana Akufo-Addo government will increase funding in the sector and support various initiatives and programmes that intend to grow and also use its purchasing power to patronize locally produced agric produce to reduce Ghana’s huge food import bill.

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