Flag Bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Vice President of Ghana Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on Wednesday evening dedicated only two paragraphs to the nation’s greatest and most enduring economic backbone, agriculture. In spite of being continually downgraded, it still continues to be the biggest employer in Ghana to date, engaging millions.
Dr. Bawumia also did not have a single direct word to the millions of farmers across the country whose labour has created to Ghana’s large educated elite.
Indeed, in an address spanning a whopping 174 paragraphs and across 73 pages, he dedicated only two unsatisfactory paragraphs directly to agriculture. The first was at paragraph 17 on page 8, and the second was on food security on page 51. In both paragraphs, he failed to address farmers, who constitute Ghana’s largest voting class.
Again, the little he had to say on agriculture, should lead to some concern.
For instance, on Agricultural Growth at paragraph 17, the NPP Flag Bearer stated, “The stronger GDP growth performance in the 2017-2022 period is underpinned by a strong agricultural GDP growth which increased from an average of 2.9% between 2013-2016 to an average of 6% (double) between 2017 and 2022. We have made a lot of progress in agriculture even though there is more to be done. Rice imports for example have declined by 45% (from 805,000MT to 440,000MT) between 2021 and 2023! The goal is to be a net exporter of rice by 2028. It is clear that some of our policy interventions such as planting for food and jobs have born fruits.”
Dr. Bawumia’s claims, however, is not borne out by the average shopper in Ghana’s usually dirty and unsanitary regular markets, where majority of Ghanaians find their food. At Christmas and into a new year, plantain for instance should be in abundance, but is still being sold at a few fingers for at least ten cedis.
Staples such as cassava and corn still continue to be prohibitively expensive and beyond the reach of many Ghanaians, whilst Ghana remains a net importer of raw tomato from Burkina Faso, even though Ghana traditionally has always had better land from its northern neighbour.
The next time Dr. Bawumia mentions agriculture is at paragraph 132 at page 51.
He states, “I want a Ghana where we attain food security through the application of technology and irrigation to commercial large scale farming. We will also promote the use of agricultural lime to reduce the acidity of our soils, enhance soil fertility and get more yield from the application of fertilizers. Ghana has an abundance of limestone to do this. I will prioritise the construction of the Pwalugu Dam by using private sector financing to crowd-in grant financing.”
This is another problematic paragraph, in that whilst it sounds optimistic, Ghanaian agriculture has traditionally employed peasant methods whilst agricultural extension services has been less than impressive in all the decades.
The ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’, and its later metamorphosis ‘Rearing for Food and Jobs’ is largely admitted as two policy failures that would need to be written about in the days to come.
The Pwalugu Dam, which he drew out with such fanfare, is a white elephant that saw first conception by the Volta River Authority (VRA) in the early nineteen nineties but has failed to be consummated in seven years on NPP administration, only to turn up in DR. Bawumia’s speech on Wednesday evening.
