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The 2021 Sunyani Municipal Best Farmer, Robert Kofi Yeboah popularly known as “Agya Nyame” has observed that the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB), which is supposed to be the bank for farmers in the country is doing little to fulfill its mandate and for that matter, the government has to intervene and facilitate the loan process for farmers who are investing in agriculture to boost the sector.
He has bemoaned the stress and difficulties farmers encounter when trying to secure loans from banks to expand their farming activities.
According to him, the government has introduced some flagship programs to support farmers and boost the agricultural sector but these programs will not be complete if farmers do not get the necessary financial support to implement them.
Therefore, the 54-year-old wants the government to introduce a policy that will support farmers in the country to get loans with low-interest rates, flexible terms of payment, and difficulties to enable the successful implementation of the flagship programs.
“For me, though some farmers seem to have problems with the government’s flagship programs as such the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs and the ‘Planting for Export and Rural Development, it’s good because this year I received 8400 cocoa seedlings and now I’m preparing 20 acres of land which the assembly has promised to give me coconuts seedlings to plant. I know other farmers have also benefited from other things I haven’t gotten, he said.
“When a policy is introduced, it is not everybody that will benefit, and the fact that everyone didn’t benefit doesn’t mean it’s a failure. What I think the government should do now is to support farmers like myself to get loans with flexible terms of payment without difficulties from banks to enable us to expand our farms. We have an Agriculture bank but it’s doing little to support farmers which I think the government must look at.”
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Daily Searchlight’s Reporter, Collins Fosu Appiah on the ‘The State of Agricultural in the Country, the Challenges and the Way Forward, Mr. Yeboah said the major challenge comforting the sector is the lack of warehouses and storage facilities to preserve farm produces for good prices after harvesting, but because they don’t have access to these facilities they are forced to sell to buyers at the buyer’s preferred price because items like plantain, tomatoes, and others cannot be kept for long.
Mr. Yeboah also appealed to the government to put proper measures in place to address the shortage of fertilizers on the market to enable farmers to get and apply them at the right time.
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