The flag bearer of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has pledged to transform the agricultural sector where technology will be introduced to boost food production to improve the lives of farmers.
He said he would make agriculture his priority where the best practices in Brazil and China would be brought to bear on Ghana’s agricultural sector.
Addressing enthusiastic party supporters and sympathisers at the Jubilee Park in Bolgatanga in the Bolgatanga Central Constituency to round off his five-day tour of the Upper East Region last Tuesday, Dr Bawumia reiterated his promise to establish district agricultural mechanisation centres to make tractors and other farm equipment and inputs easily accessible to farmers.
He announced the establishment of an agricultural enclave in the Tono irrigation dam area in the region where farmers would be adequately supported to increase crop production, saying “The Tono dam has the potential to irrigate large hectares of land and that farmers will be assisted to boost their morale to produce more to feed the nation”.
He assured the people that the Pwalugu multipurpose dam project and the Bolgatanga Airport would both be constructed under the next NPP administration to serve the intended purposes.
Dr Bawumia said the party had performed better in government to deserve another term to steer the affairs of the country. “There is no doubt that we have done so well in all sectors of the economy since assuming the reigns of power in 2017 as compared to the last government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC),” he stated.
A section of the party supporters at the rally
He mentioned that the NPP government had performed better in agriculture, road construction, railway sector, education, health as well as the economy as against the abysmal performance of the NDC government.
Speaking at the event, the Minister of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, said in the area of the economy, the NPP’s performance far outweighed that of the NDC government which was headed by former President John Dramani Mahama.
Buttressing his assertion, he said the NDC in 2016 recorded a budget deficit of 6.3 per cent but the NPP in 2023 recorded a deficit of 3.3 per cent, saying “in terms of primary balance, the NDC in 2006 recorded a deficit of 1.1 per cent while the NPP in 2023 had a deficit of 0.3 per cent”.
Additionally, he stated that on international reserves, the NDC in 2016 recorded $ 6.2 billion but the NPP in the two quarters of 2024, had already recorded $ 6.9 billion which pointed to the fact that the economy was in safe hands.
Dr Adam, who is also the NPP Member of Parliament for Karaga in the Northern Region, urged Ghanaians not to be deceived by the NDC since the NPP has done well in the management of the economy.