Government urged to prioritise agriculture to revive economy – IFS
The government must prioritise agriculture as part of efforts to revive the economy and create jobs for the unemployed youth, an economic think tank, the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), has stated.
It said agriculture had a great potential to stimulate accelerated economic growth and massive job creation, which could significantly bring down the rate of unemployment in Ghana.
The IFS in a paper titled: ‘What should be the priorities of the new government as it confronts the ongoing economic difficulties and as it prepares the 2025 budget and economic policy statement,’ noted that all the natural conditions necessary for a thriving agriculture were present in Ghana.
“For instance, weather conditions such as the number of days in the year of sunshine and the levels of annual precipitation (rainfall) are favourable for a flourishing agriculture in Ghana. Also, for the size of its population, agricultural land, measuring 126,037.4 square kilometres as at 2021. According to World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank, Ghana is in a position of being able to achieve massive agricultural production, if the country’s land tenure and administration challenges are addressed,” the IFS stated.
Additionally, it said there was abundant supply of labour in the country, which if appropriately incentivised and mobilised, could help to propel agricultural production.
“However, agriculture in Ghana is underperforming its potential. Agriculture has seen its contribution to Gross Domestic Product decline from 26.9 per cent in 2010 to 22.7 per cent in 2023. In fact, the sector, which grew by 7.3 per cent and 8.5 per cent in 2020 and 2021 respectively, saw its growth rate sharply decline to 4.2 per cent and 4.5 per cent in 2022 and 2023 respectively,” the IFS queried.
Among others, the IFS recommended that the government should massively mobilise the youth for the production of key and strategic agricultural products on team basis by providing them with seed money (capital) on credit with no regard to political party affiliation.
“For this to succeed, the government has to facilitate the acquisition of agricultural lands by the mobilised youth. The government has to also ensure that monies lent out for this purpose are strictly paid back within stipulated periods of time,” the IFS emphasised.
The think-tank further indicated that the government should significantly expand irrigation coverage in order to ensure continuous agricultural production throughout the year.
It also stressed that the country must establish a number of fertiliser manufacturing plants in Ghana to ensure that adequate and affordable fertilisers are made available to farmers in order to boost agricultural productivity.
“The government should significantly enhance extension services for farmers and enhance the provision or preferably set up a dedicated institution to take over the supply of adequate high-yielding and disease-resistant seeds throughout the country,” the IFS indicated.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
