Food or shelter?

The survival of man on earth is indeed influenced by many factors prominent among them, as we all know, are food and shelter which are among the basic physiological needs according to Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy theory of motivation.

For food being very essential, the Great Lord first placed us in the Garden of Eden, but not in the Shelter of Eden!! The loving God fully equipped the Garden of Eden for farming by providing a major river which broke into four headstreams namely Pishon, Gihon, Tigris and Euphrates. With the adequate provision of water, in Genesis 2:15, God said to man, forward “work it and take care of it”. Farming was therefore the first profession given to man by the Almighty God.

Farm conditions in developed nations

It is not surprising that most of the developed nations in the world today first started by developing their agriculture. The agricultural production led to industrialization which brought about the proper handling and the preservation of farm produce for the expansion of both internal and international trade serving as major sources of foreign exchange for some of the developed nations, thus leading to increase in their revenues.

Generally, farmers in developed nations are able to maintain their farms because their national agricultural policies have created the enabling environment for profitable farming. Farmers have access to credit facilities and enjoy subsidies in various forms. They are supported by ongoing research which improves their planting materials and farming techniques. There are storage facilities and factories to handle and process respectively their excess production. The well-established marketing systems both internally and internationally serve as great incentives for farmers in the developed nations. The guaranteed prices they received for their produce help them to be competitive in the midst of the fast-developing economic sectors of these nations. The good returns from their farming efforts help them to adopt farming as a lifestyle and also as business. For the family farms, generational farmers are continuously encouraged to maintain the family trait for example Uncle Ben’s Rice.

Farming conditions in Ghana

Even though Ghana is naturally an agricultural country capable of producing sufficient food to feed her growing population and export surplus, we are now relying heavily on food import, because during the colonial era, and still now, the emphasis in our agricultural development has been more on the production and export of crops which we generally do not eat, than on the food we eat and can export.

Ghana is still among the world leading producers of cocoa because all the necessary infrastructure for us to maintain our position in cocoa production in the world are in place.

The cocoa farmer is the most recognized farmer in Ghana because he or she enjoys a guaranteed price. But this is not so with the food farmer. For instance, it is the plantain seller who is known but not the plantain farmer. Generally, the food marketing system is based at the marketplaces. The market queens send their agents to the food growing areas to buy the food items at their own convenient prices and bring them to the marketplaces where market queens of the various food items fix their own prices for the final group of food sellers in the food trading chain, who in turn sell their items to the consumer at high prices. Unlike the cocoa farmer, the food farmer gets an unfair price for his or her farm produce because of being exploited by the long chain of agents in the food marketing system.

Generally, the low prices food farmers receive for their produce do not make them competitive with Estate Developers, who also need land to sustain their industry. Our growing population has made Estate development a booming industry. The Estate Developers are buying tracts of farm land from landowners because the rents they get from farmers cannot be compared with what Estate Developers offer. Chiefs are also selling lands to individual developers and surface land miners not leaving land for farming or even for cemeteries!! Sadly, even marshy land that could be used for taro (kooko) production is being filled and built on.

Unlike food farming, inputs, both imported and locally made, are readily available for the building industry. Cement factories are dotted around the country. It is easier to get a bag of cement than a bag of fertilizer or feed for livestock. And sadly because of the unattractive nature of food farming in the country, both the old and young farmers are joining commercial trade as if food is not important.

Creating an enabling farm condition in Ghana

It is true that with our increasing population we would need shelter. But the provision of food to maintain our growing population is equally important. Indeed, it is high time we considered that land use in Ghana for national infrastructure and Estate developments is not at the expense of land for agricultural development. There is the need for a land use policy in Ghana based on a National Agricultural policy which should stand the test of time, irrespective of the Government in power. These two policies are very essential for the successful development of the agriculture of a nation, agriculture being a driving force behind the improvement and sustenance of the economy of a nation like our dear nation, as cocoa has been since the colonial era. Sadly now, Estate development, surface mining and various commercial ventures by the rich are fast replacing food farming which feeds both the rich and the poor. Surface mining is not only replacing food farms but also destroying the land, the reclamation of which is not only very expensive but also takes a very long time. Under natural conditions such lands may take about 500 years to regain their natural fertility.

The extensive Estate development and the rapid growth of commercial ventures, especially along our major roads are fast pushing farming activities deep into the bush requiring the need to construct expensive access roads – an expense beyond the reach of majority of peasant farmers. Indeed, gone are the days when farms were situated along the major trunk roads in the country and one could get to the farms to work or to buy some farm produce either for sale as a middleman or for home consumption.

For instance, the beautiful farms of crops such as pineapples, maize and cassava, and of livestock which were along the Kasoa – Cape Coast Road some time ago have been replaced with Estate houses and commercial ventures. This is only just one example. Several commercial farms, along our major trunk roads, have been replaced this way throughout the country under the guise of national development through trade, Estate development, and surface mining, at the expense of food farming. Indeed, the time has come, as a nation, for us to turn the tide around to avoid our total dependency on food imports, as we are virtually experiencing now, by letting food farming take its rightful place in our national development, with the increasing population. The emphasis our colonial masters laid on cocoa development about 100 years ago has made it possible for Ghana to be among the leading producers of cocoa in the world today.

Revival of food farming – the way forward

As our colonial master did for cocoa years ago, let us now make a firm commitment to food production so that from now to eternity Ghanaians would be able to feed ourselves and be a major exporter of food to the developed world, especially during winter to earn foreign exchange for mother Ghana. Indeed, the emphasis should be now because the current depletion of the underground water as a result of climate change makes our dependency on the export of tree crops, especially cocoa, as a major source of foreign exchange, very bleak in future. However, the development of our annual and biennial crops to suit our present unpredictable climatic conditions as a result of the climate change would not only make food farming competitive with the estate industry but sustainable in future, with our persistent selection of resilient annual and biennial crops to suit unpredictable climatic conditions.

Food farming can be developed to be competitive with the building industry, commercial activities and surface mining, using our experience from the cocoa industry. The agricultural infrastructure established by our colonial master for cocoa development and those in the First Republic general agriculture, can be revived to push food farming in Ghana forward. Cocoa and Oil Palm Research Institutes were established by the colonial Government to develop Cocoa and Oil Palm respectively. In the first Republics, crop, animal, food, water and soil Research institutes were established. All these research institutes should be adequately resourced to strictly study all aspects of food farming to make it competitive with other sectors of the economy of Ghana. All the agricultural stations established since the colonial era across the country, namely Asuansi, Aiyinase, Kwadaso, Ohawo, Ejura, Wenchi, Zuarungu, Dumov and Nyanpkala should also be adequately resourced to carry out field trials of the findings of the research institutes. A great emphasis should be laid on the Seed Multiplication Unit of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to enable the Unit produce seeds to meet the seed need of Ghana.

For sustainable food farming in Ghana, Agricultural programmes in our Universities and Agricultural training colleges should be structured to produce people with a heart for agriculture. In addition, the farm institutes established during the colonial era and First Republic should be revived to produce men and women who would take to food farming as a lifestyle and business to replace our ageing and dying farmers. It is also important that the teaching of Agriculture in our basic and high school be revived to catch farmers young. For sustainable food farming in Ghana all Basic and High schools should have farms and gardens for the young ones to have the feel of farming. Those who are not interested in furthering their education could take to farming as farmers or farm hands. The weather is a major determinant of a successful farming operation, especially crop farming. The farmer needs to know the weather pattern well enough to decide on what crop to cultivate, and when and how to cultivate it. Therefore, the current unpredictable weather pattern should be studied thoroughly for a farmer to know the best time to start his or her farming operations to be successful, and competitive with the non-agricultural sectors of our economy.

The success of any farming activities in an enabling environment depending on the setting up of agro-based industries cannot be over emphasized. These industries would produce the essential inputs needed for successful food farming. Additionally, there should be factories to process farm produce to add value to them, make them easily marketable, and cut down farm losses. The availability of a profitable marketing system is also very essential. The cocoa farmer continues to grow and maintain his or her farm because of the establishment of guarantee price for cocoa by the Cocoa Board. For food farming to be competitive with Estate Development, Marketing Boards should be set up for all our major staples with guarantee prices, and our food farmers would be saved from market Queens and the middlemen and women.

Superiority of food farming in national economy

For an economic turnaround in our beloved Ghana’s agriculture, particularly food farming should be revived at all cost because the returns would be great for our nation. Food farming apart from making the nation food sufficient and less dependent on food import, would rake in foreign exchange. Rural-Urban migration would be minimized because people would stay in the rural areas to farm food for themselves and the nation. Tradition would be maintained because there would be less infiltration of Urban influence. Food farming would help to reduce the unemployment in Ghana by offering opportunities for people to work as farm hands, through factory workers and to marketing agents or companies.

It is true that Estate Development would help to reduce the housing deficit in the country, but it leads to urbanization and its associated problems. Even though it is seen as creating jobs, it leads more to the encroachment of more farm land. Sadly, houses cannot be exported as food crops can! Healthy and strong people are needed for viable national development. For the sake of our future generations, we need now to use our land efficiently for food production for all, rather than put it under modern expensive estates for the rich few. Does everyone have to build his or her own house? Children are not interested in what parents have built under the spirit of obsolescence. Do we have enough land for such land use? This is food for thought – this is a clarion call.

Oh Lord! God save Ghana, Our Motherland from expensive Estate development, a Buying and Selling Economy, and Surface Mining, and bless us with sustainable, economic food farming enterprises.