AGRICULTURE ASSOCIATED WITH POVERTY

By Felix Schmermer

Fifty percent of farmers in the Central Region are poor, with 80% of the farmers having less than 1.2 ha to cultivate, meaning they are only capable of doing subsistence farming, which also leads to great food insecurity in the region.

Due to the missing modern techniques, to have a steady harvest throughout the year the income of the farmers depends highly on the seasons. This situation is a sad reality for most of the people in Central region where 80-90% of the people are employed or dependent on agriculture. Even though so many people are working in that sector and the workforce is huge, with over 1,122,000 people related to agriculture, the potential in that sector is not properly realised because of the complications the agricultural sector is facing. That is one reason why the Central Region is the 4^th poorest region and the challenges in the agriculture sector are one of the major concerns in the fight against poverty.

So farmers in the Central Region have drawn a bad lot. Not only is working in agriculture physical hard work, it also takes a long time to make any profit, and is one of the most competitive sectors on the world market. The profit that can be made by small farming is marginal and a lot of the youth are trying to flee from it by finding something different outside of agriculture. Agriculture also becomes more and more complicated with new standards established, upcoming new technologies and new things like sustainable farming being integrated into the sector of agriculture. All these things are turning agriculture into a science in itself, and without training and financial support most of the farmers will not be able to keep up with these coming challenges.

But what is done to help the farmers to overcome those challenges? There are a lot of projects of NGOS and other organisation in the Central Region but due to the lack of coordination these actions are damned not to prosper. That was the reason to set up a forum of stakeholders at the Centre for national culture in the Central Region with the topic: Unifying all Stakeholders in Agriculture to move Agriculture forward in Central Region and it is the first of its kind in Ghana. Among the participants of the forum were the Regional Director of Agriculture George Badu-Yeboah, Representatives of Moap Giz and other development partners, Metropolitan, Municipal and District directors of Agriculture and Farmer Representatives. All of them saw the need to spearhead a proactive program to develop agriculture in the Central Region. The aim of the program will be to move the Central Region from 4^th poorest region to the 4^th or 3^rd richest in the period of 3 years by developing agriculture, and so supporting the majority of the population in the Central Region.

Is agriculture only a private supply activity? No, agriculture has moved to become a business and should be seen as one. And one of the main concerns of a business is to make profit, but most of the farmers are not capable of making any profit. So MoFA and the other development partners are trying to identify the reason for this. But MoFA in the Central Region is highly under-resourced with only one Agriculture Extension Agent (AEA) dealing with over 1,000 people when the normal and adequate ratio would be 1:500. Due to that MoFA needs to collaborate very closely with the development partner and good coordination is necessary. For the approach of coordination the held forum is a milestone.

With the following achievements to come :

•  To identify stakeholders in the developmental plan of the region

• To identify the various stakeholders’ plans of activities for the agricultural sector in the region

• To identify strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities in the implementation of the organizational activities

• To develop a documentary of stakeholders activities for the sector in the region

• To raise the income levels of the rural poor through the collaborative effort of stakeholders within three years

These achievements could only be realized if stakeholders come together and work as a team. Soon to come is also a forum for farmers for deliberation on the outcomes of the forum with the stakeholders.

If all plans of the development partner and MoFA are realized and well-coordinated as a team there will soon be:

•  modernised farming,

• products with a competitive standard,

•  reduced poverty, raised income levels

•  food security

• enhanced integration into  the domestic and international market

• capability of producing food the whole year round

• sustainable farming

• better communication between producers and processors

• training provided for most of the farmers

• the youth will come back to the agricultural sector

This forum is an important step forward in finally bringing participants in agriculture to prosper, and also in reducing the poverty in Central Region. And in 3 years the word poverty might no longer be linked to the word agriculture.