The Member of Parliament for Salaga South, Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah, has called for investment in the road sector in her area to improve the livelihood of the constituents.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament in Accra yesterday, Madam Ibrahimah said the poor road network in the area was having a toll on farmers in the constituency.
“Mr Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the Ministry Of Roads And Highways, Department of Feeder Roads to come to the aid of my constituents by working on the badly affected roads.”
Some of the roads which she said needed fixed include Salaga – Boankwa road, Salaga – Kafaba, Nfulanipe – Boankwa, Kumburupe – Accrape, Salaga – Kulpi, Salaga Prang Abromase roads.
According to her, the bad road network in the area was affecting the carting of food products from the farms to market centres leading to high post-harvest losses.
Other effects of the poor road network in the area she enumerated include high cost of transportation, increased food prices, and high rate of rural-urban migration.
“Mr Speaker, the negative effects of this situation on agriculture and economic activities in my constituency are innumerable,” she told the House.
The contribution of the agric sector to the gross domestic product which has steadily dropped from 54 per cent in 2001, she said, cannot be overlooked in the quest to equitably develop the country.
“Mr Speaker, even though the services sector overtook agriculture in terms of contribution to GDP, in the last decade, the role of agriculture in Ghana’s economy remains enormously significant,” Madam Ibrahimah observed as she entreated government to consider Salaga South in the short to medium term development plan of rural areas in the country.
A Deputy Minister of Agric, Yaw Frimpong Addo, assuring the NDC Salaga South lawmaker said government was working to improve road networks across rural areas in the country.
He admitted that improving on the roads in the country has been a major headache for successive governments and both regimes which have governed the country since the return to democratic rule in 1993 must take the blame for not doing enough.
Describing the northern area of the country as the food basket of the country, Mr Frimpong, NPP MP, Manso Adubia, said the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led government remained committed to addressing the road needs of rural areas.
“As we speak right now, there are several road programmes that are being rolled out within the agricultural sector to improve the road network in those areas,” he said.
To ensure that farm produce didn’t go waste in the face of the transportation difficulties, Mr Frimpong said warehouses under the ‘One District, ‘One Warehouse’ policy was intended to preserve food for future use and urged farmers to utilise them.
He encouraged farmers in the hard-to-reach areas to continue to patronise the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme so as to ensure there was food available all-year round.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI