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21.09.2014 Feature Article

The Urgent Need

The Urgent Need
21.09.2014 LISTEN

Given the essential role agriculture plays in the wealth of nations, it is rather abstruse that the agricultural industry is being maligned in Ghana. It is noted that "the difficulties traders and farmers face in accessing credits from banks [are] negatively affecting the development of the agricultural sector" (See "Farmers cry for affordable loans", Daily Guide/Ghanaweb.com, 18th September, 2014). This draws our attention to the fact that our banks are gradually killing agriculture in this nation.

I must be quick in telling you, dear reader, that, it is tempting, at this juncture, to discuss the significance of the agricultural industry I learnt in Economics in the secondary school in proving that killing the industry in this nation will plunge us into chaos, but that will not be done here. Rather, I will analyse how the banks' bad attitude towards our farmers relates to the ban on tilapia importation, our sudden eagerness to revamp industrialisation and calls to patronise made-in-Ghana goods.

Against the clear fact that patronage for tilapia has always been high in the nation could be set a concrete evidence that the chunk of it was imported. This situation had deleterious effect on our economy. Hence, it is not surprising that its importation has been banned, a move described by many as "a laudable step ... towards the building of a better local economy, since the move will spur growth in the local budding aquaculture sector" (See "Ban on Tilapia importation will boost local production", The Republic/Ghanaweb.com, 3rd September, 2014).

The above means that one significant effect of the ban is the need for increased domestic production to meet the high demand for the product; thus, to make up for the "cut-off" amount. Such a situation can be immensely beneficial to our local producers, as it can be a golden opportunity for them to increase their production and enjoy huge profits. However, there is great uncertainty regarding our producers' capability of meeting the expectation, which hinges helplessly on their financial buoyancy. Given the excruciatingly poor level of financial status of our farmers, one of the best ways of extirpating the element of uncertainty here is furnishing them with credit facilities.

This is where the difficulties our farmers face in securing credit facilities from banks become crucial in the analysis. Whenever financial help for a person in need is delayed or denied, it always results in disastrous consequences. In that sense, it can be said that the bad reputation our banks have established by setting up impediments that adversely affect our farmers' ease of accessing credits can result in disastrous consequences. Will the nation run out of the fish we love so much? Will the nation lift the ban on the importation of the fish for us to face the economic problems again? Will a farmer's creedal desire of getting funds at all cost with a cynical aim of making huge profits lead him into doing the unimaginable? Answers to these questions will undoubtedly deepen our understanding of the need for our farmers to have access to credit facilities.

Furthermore, this can have grievous repercussions on industrialisation in the nation. There is no contention about the fact that agriculture plays an essential role in industrialisation in terms of the provision of raw materials. Based on such an inextricable linkage, the latter gets adversely affected whenever the smooth running of the former is nefariously altered. It is in light of this that we all have to be concerned about the difficulties our farmers go through in securing credit facilities from banks, as the absence of such credits has the potential of breaking the backbone of industrialisation.

Confronted with the inability to solve our unemployment crisis by using other sectors, we have all advocated industrialisation as a superb means of curbing the crisis, and seriously working to achieve that. The biggest indicator of our seriousness can be seen in our eagerness to revamp the Komenda Sugar Factory. Again, it is refreshing to note that we can boast of other several industries. But the mere preponderance of industries will not take us anywhere; what is important is the availability of raw materials for the industries to be operational. Therefore, while we trust industrialisation to be efficacious in helping in curing our unemployment canker, the difficulties our farmers face in securing credit facilities pose a huge threat. In other words, such difficulties impede our efforts of fully developing our industries as a first step towards curbing our unemployment crisis. Thus, industrialisation cannot be fully developed and sustained inasmuch as our agricultural sector cannot furnish our industries with the required raw materials.

The above means that the banks contribute in weakening our industries indirectly inasmuch as they deprive our farmers of their unfettered ability of feeding them with raw materials. The industries will in turn crumple; which means our hope of revamping them will be dashed. So what happens? No more plantain chips in our streets! And the knock-on effect? Hungary drivers and passengers. "A hungry man is an angry man" (Bob Marley), and an angry man is a misunderstanding man. So a lot of misunderstanding in our commercial vehicles, and perhaps accidents. And any banker can be caught up in this whole caboodle of a quagmire. Moreover, no sorghum; no millet; no cow; which means no more pito (locally manufactured alcoholic drink) and kebab. Just as a man got to do what a man got to do to survive ( although I disagree with that), a woman got to do what a woman got to do to survive. Therefore, while men develop an unfortunate knack for being "in possession of tools" at night to survive, women develop a disheartening knack for being "by the roadside" at night to survive. Got it? So what happens in the end? Everybody gets affected and Ghana looses and loses terribly.

Additionally, the above can spell disaster for us in terms of our desire of whipping up taste for our locally produced goods. The notion that increasing people's taste for locally produced goods is effective in boosting the economy of a nation is a brilliant one. However, its success is based on the underlying assumption that agriculture and industrialisation are enormously potent and propitious in that particular nation. What this means is that any malignancy in those economic activities can spell doom for a nation regarding its bid to spur up taste for locally manufactured goods.

Therefore, because the obstacles our farmers face in securing credit facilities from banks are liable to kill agriculture and industrialisation, the production of goods could be negatively affected: zero or few made-in-Ghana goods to fall on. Thus, logically, the mission will only be successful if there is smooth flow of credit facilities from banks to the farmers, which will go a long way in developing both the agric and industrial sectors - abundance of locally manufactured goods to patronise; otherwise, we will have no choice but to fall on goods manufactured outside Ghana, which will not necessarily boost our economy. So how do we boost our economy in that regard? Your guess is as right as mine, dear reader.

That said, we should educate ourselves that two things need to be done. The campaign for everyone to patronise such goods is laudable, but I dare say that it is less likely to produce the needed result. The campaign should be backed by support from the banks. It is worth noting that "Even in cases where [the banks] are willing to give the loans, it takes them about two to three months, and mostly before these loans come, the farming season is over which makes the loans, in most cases, meaningless" (See "Farmers cry for affordable loans", Daily Guide/Ghanaweb.com, 18th September, 2014). This will not auger well for Mother Ghana. The loans must be given to the farmers as and when needed. Hence, calls by the president, the MP, the teacher, the carpenter, the journalist, to patronise our goods should be done in tandem with calls for our banks to pamper our farmers with the much-needed credit facilities.

All the above analyses point to an urgent need for our farmers to be treated well regarding access to credit facilities. That is, it behoves our banks to simply improve their performance, as the inability of our farmers to procure such credit facilities has far-reaching consequences on the ban on tilapia importation, industrialisation prospect and the calls to patronise our locally manufactured products.

Kwabena Aboagye-Gyan
([email protected])

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