Humado Votes For Plantain, Cassava And Cocoyam

 
 
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture is campaigning for greater commercialisation of the production of our local foodstuffs such as plantain, cassava, and cocoyam, as part of the national strategy to ensure food security.

MOFA Minister Clement Kofi Humado believes it was time the private sector 'is assisted and encouraged' to go into large-scale commercial production of Ghana's staple foods.

After a visit to Amanfuom Farms Limited, said to be the biggest plantain farm in the country, at Makyiniabre, in the Brong Ahafo Region, Humado advocated the motivation of local farmers to produce in large quantities.

'The over-concentration on the large scale production of cereal crops - maize and rice - is not enough to meet the ever-growing food demand in the country,' he said.

Amanfuom Farms reportedly has about 100 acres of plantain under cultivation at Makyiniabre, and that it was from there that an agro-processing firm in Accra is supplied the raw materials for its plantain-chips output.

The Chronicle thinks Mr. Humado's call is timely. In a world of creeping hunger, increased production of our staples would ensure our food security, and since they are food items that are eaten across our sub-region and beyond, we could generate hard currency from them.

But The Chronicle is disappointed that officials, whose emoluments are part of the national wage bill that is almost choking us to death, are still doing armchair agriculture.

Minister Humado is campaigning for 'somebody' to motivate our farmers to expand their farming menu. Who, we ask?

We, the people of Ghana, employ our ministers to use their knowledge and expertise to improve our welfare, and not to merely advise us on what are supposed to do.

If our Minister of Agriculture has convinced himself of the need for farmers to be given incentives to produce on a larger scale, we expect that he would inform us of the measures he has instituted to so motivate them, and not feed us on mere declarations of need.

For instance, according to reports, the plantain scientist who supervises Amanfuom Farms and lectures at KNUST, Dr. Ben Banfo, appealed to the Enterprise Development, Industry and Agricultural Fund (EDAIF) to support the farm to 'construct an irrigation system to sustain its production levels.'

This appeal was presumably made in the presence of the Minister of Agriculture, but nothing in the report indicated how the Minister responded to it.

One would have expected that Minister Humado, in pursuit of his campaign to motivate farmers to produce more, would assure Dr. Banfo, on the spot, of the Ministry's support for any application that the farm would make to EDAIF, in connection with the proposed irrigation project.

Such open support for an important agricultural need as irrigation would have immediately demonstrated to all those who hear the Minister's call for motivation for farmers for increased production that the call was a serious one.

Now that the Minister has meekly allowed such a golden opportunity to slip him by, many people do not know how to assess his call

Serious or window dressing? Take your pick!