A former Research Scientist at the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Professor Roger Kanton, is advocating for the implementation of a comprehensive agrarian policy in Ghana.
This policy, he says is crucial for enhancing and expanding agricultural production in the country.
Professor Kanton expressed concern about the negative impact of politics and poorly devised manifestos of political parties on the agricultural sector.
During the fourth forum of this year’s Citi Business Festival on Citi TV, which focused on the theme “Understanding and Leveraging Agribusiness Value Chains,” Professor Kanton emphasized the necessity of a long-term agrarian plan that would be followed consistently by every government in power.
He criticized the practice of introducing new policies driven by political motivations, as they often fail to endure.
To ensure sustained agricultural growth, Prof. Kanton emphasized the importance of formulating a clear-cut agrarian policy that transcends political cycles.
“What is the Ghanaian agrarian policy? We must clearly define that and that should not be mixed with political party manifestos because manifestos are just temporal things that people just come together and say they want to do and that is why it has never worked.
“There must be an independent agricultural policy that every government that comes will have to implement and not individual party or government policies and so strategies can vary and so they do not come and tell us how to do agriculture, it should be the people that should be leading the navigation.”
He advised that Ghana must learn from other countries that have succeeded in implementing independently crafted agricultural policies that have proved productive.
“If you go to other jurisdictions such as Russia, they have an agrarian policy and they know where they are going and at what point but that is not the case with Ghana. A Minister sits down and says he wants to do Planting for Food and Jobs without a clear policy and I have been asking them where is the blueprint.
Citinews