The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) on Friday called on government to urgently expedite action on the Agriculture Credit Fund Bill (ACFB) to ensure its passage into law.
At a meeting with the Deputy Minister in-Charge of Crops at the Ministry
of Food and Agriculture, Mr Yaw Effah-Baafi in Accra, President of PFAG, Mr Mohammed Adam Nashiru said the passage of the bill was long overdue to
safeguard the interest of farmers.
The ACFB, which was submitted to government in 2007, seeks to enhance farmers' access to credit at a reasonable rate to support their production activities.
It also seeks to put in place mechanisms to safeguard farmers and other farm-related enterprises from unfair foreign competition.
Mr Nashiru said the non-existence of such a fund had compelled farmers to borrow from commercial markets at high interest rates.
He said this sometimes made it difficult for farmers to pay back the loans especially when the yield was not sufficient because of bad weather.
He added that farmers sometimes used all their incomes to service debts due to its high rates saying, "this does not augur well for comfortable living".
He said this had compelled them to call on the new government to expedite action on the bill since efforts to get the previous government to pass it into law failed.
Mr Effah-Baafi said government had just laid hands upon the bill and was currently studying it to ensure it contained all the necessary ingredients beneficial to farmers before laying it before parliament.
He said government was interested in the passage of the bill because it fell within its policy to making resources available to farmers at reasonable costs to enhance their businesses grow.
He commended PFAG for the efforts at drafting the bill and pledged the Ministry's preparedness to work closely with the office for efficient agricultural production.