The Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition (GTLC), a nation-wide advocacy group of small-scale farmers, have reiterated its call on government to reward farmers through implementation of good policies that would guarantee the livelihood of small-scale farmers.
At a press conference in Accra on Monday, the Coalition said the present trend of rewarding few hard working farmers during National Farmers'
Day would not help solve the myriad of problems facing them.
Mr. Ibrahim Akalbila, Co-ordinator of the Coalition who addressed the press conference to launch the annual week celebrations of the body said:
"The best way to reward farmers is for government to guarantee access to markets, provide targeted investment, ensure strict implementation of
policies, have access to favourable credit facilities and support farmers to add value to their produce to be competitive on the Ghanaian market."
It instituted the annual farmers' week celebration four years ago, towards the National Farmers' Day celebration through activities to
highlight challenges facing farmers, especially those in the food crops sub-sector.
In addition, it would draw government's attention to factors militating against the production of small scale farmers and for government to offer better reward system to address the plight of farmers.
This year's celebration is on the theme: "Redefining Government's Role in the Agriculture Sector; From Rhetoric to Action," would be held in
Ashaiman.
Mr. Akalbila explained that the theme was chosen to draw government's attention to its role during the farmers' day celebration and create
national awareness on key agriculture policy targets for the year and mechanisms to achieve them.
He noted that government alone could not solve the problems facing farmers, but the onus still rested on the Executive to ensure that the
environment within which the farmers operated was not detrimental to their development.
Mr. Akalbila said it was not enough for government to make policy pronouncements, but to also ensure effective implementation of those
initiatives.
He pointed out that the Coalition would continue to demand from government an enhanced support for all hardworking farmers to enable them
increase productivity and reduce poverty.
Mr Akalbila said a review of all the various themes for the National Farmers' Day celebrations since 1990 had shown the laudable intentions of
governments, however, they had not helped to develop agriculture to ensure sustainable development.
He said they rather paid lip service to the agriculture sector, and it was important government set productivity and infrastructure development benchmarks yearly for the celebrations and collaborate with farmers, agro-based industries, and research institutions to attain the set targets.