Veep outlines govt's measures on agriculture

Vice President John Dramani Mahama says the government has outlined measures to support farmers to become exporters of food at the end of the farming season.

Some of the measures include increased subsidies on fertilizers, provision of more tractors and creation of Agricultural Mechanical Centres where tractor and other services would be given to farmers.

The Vice President, who spoke to journalists in an interview in his office, said apart from making Ghana an exporter of food, the measures were also geared towards making farmers important and rich personalities in society.

"In most developed countries, farmers are the richest and the most important personalities, but in our own culture here, farmers are poor and despised because of poor farming practices."

Vice President Mahama said the Green Revolution, an organization that supplies improved seeds to farmers and other seed management companies have been contracted to supply farmers with improved seeds and technical expertise, assuring that with all these in place, food production would increase.

"Last year we had a surplus of 145,000 metric tonnes of maize with a 30 per cent increase in rice production. The President and I are engaged in farming and hope that others will take to farming in addition to whatever they are doing," he said.

He said Mahindra Company Limited, an Indian automobile company, has been contracted to supply Ghanaian farmers with tractors while the government works with some other Indian companies to set up a fertilizer company.

The Vice President added that the World Food Programme and Food and Agricultural Organization have expressed interest in buying food from Ghanaian farmers to export to other countries if there are surpluses and urged farmers to take advantage of the opportunity to increase production.

Touching on the country's oil and gas find, he noted that although the government is not going to place all its hopes on it, proceeds that would accrue from the industry would be used for infrastructural development.

"No country can develop properly without adequate infrastructure and that is why we as a government will prioritize it with oil and gas revenue.