The YAFO Institute began its 2024 policy dialogue series on the topic, Beyond Slogans: Rethinking Ghana’s Agriculture – reflections on some key policies and the way forward. The guest speaker for the day was Dr. Haruna Gado Yakubu, an animal scientist, specialized in animal nutrition, food safety, and animal product correlation. In his presentation, Dr. Haruna took the time to explore the dynamics of agricultural policies in Ghana over the past four decades.
Referring to scholarly academic research, Dr. Yakubu based his presentation on the post-colonial agricultural reforms in Ghana from its early post-colonial times to more recent times in the country. He spoke of agricultural policies onboarded during these periods, where despite the government rolling out the initiative of establishing the Agricultural Produce Marketing Board and the Agricultural Development Cooperation (ADC), the government had allocated only a meager portion of development funds to assisting farmers and to incentivizing food cultivation.
From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, the government sought to support farmers and encourage large-scale private enterprise. This was done by investing funds into creating demonstration farms, processing facilities, and wholesale food distribution under the supervision of the ADC. In 1962, the government upon recognizing the Ministry of Agriculture as an entity on its own liquidated the ADC and instead incorporated state farm operations which mainly took over existing agricultural institutions of the state.
In the second republic, the government then launched the eastern region cocoa project in the early 1970s. This project subsequently became the foundation for a similar project in the 1980s, the Ashanti region cocoa project. The project involved the rehabilitation of fifty-one thousand acres of standing cocoa and the replanting of thirty-six thousand acres with high-yielding varieties. The project was to provide an improved cocoa extension service, farmer training, and the establishment of about fifteen cocoa marketing cooperatives. The Busia government’s Rural Agricultural Development policy paved the way for the successful implementation of Operation Feed Yourself by the Acheampong government from 1972 to 1978 based on increased food production in the country. Between 1974 and 1975, ‘Operation “Feed Yourself” proceeded to decline with the project being characterized by general public discontent, the exorbitant prices of domestic food items, and an expansion of the nation’s budget deficit.
Dr. Haruna Gado Yakubu continued with his presentation, discussing Ghana’s third republican agricultural strategy. A two-year agricultural program was launched where farmers were incentivized through fair producer prices, machinery, and expertise. The national budget in 1982, allocated two hundred and seventeen million cedis to the Ministry of Agriculture and its departments, and equally significant amounts were given to the irrigation development authority and cotton and bass fiber development board. The two-year agricultural development plan of the Liman government was truncated by the 31st December revolution of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
Between the periods of 1983 to 1986, the PNDC government rolled out the Economic Recovery Program (ERP). This was a sector-specific reform that saw the birth of the Agricultural Sector Rehabilitation Program (ASRP) from 1987-1993. This was done to enhance the capacity of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to provide effective policy for the rehabilitation and recovery of agricultural productivity. The average agriculture sector grew at an annual rate of 2.8% in 1984 -1990, 2.7% in the early 1990s, and 4.4% in the late 1990s.
In the fourth Republican agricultural policies, major agricultural policies include the Food and Agricultural Sector Development Policies (FASDEP 1&2), Medium Term Agricultural Sector Investment Plan (METASIP 1 &2), and more recently, Planting for Food and Jobs 1 & 2. Watch the full presentation here.
Following the insightful presentation by Dr. Haruna G. Yakubu, a panel discussion ensued where attendees were allowed to participate in the discussion through questions and answers. Mr. Joshua Larweh Tetteh, a policy scholar for agriculture at the YAFO Institute, joined the panel to enrich the discussion by bringing his experience as a farmer and being part of the team at the Crops Unit of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s Ashanti regional office that coordinated the activities of the Planting for Food and Jobs program for the 2021/2022 crop season. The panel discussed profound topics around the agricultural development in Ghana such as the bias when it comes to livestock production as opposed to crop production even though Ghana is far from being classified as a vegan state. The panel discussed how agricultural policies though good in themselves, are mostly marred by politics and the political expectations of a particular government rather than being perceived in a holistic frame as the agricultural policies designed to meet the needs of the people.
The panel went further ahead to discuss, ensuing from a question posed by a participant, the incorporation of climate change in the agricultural policies that are formulated. The panel noted that agricultural development will inevitably be impacted by climate change and the wisdom of considering climate-smart agriculture beforehand. Several other topics such as Ghana’s LI on import restriction, galamsey, and traditional developments that tend to hinder agriculture were considered.
The panel dissected these topics and their expected impact on agricultural production and development in Ghana. Noting that on the subject of importation, the nation should be ready to meet the demands of the people with regards to certain produce before going ahead to implement an LI on import restriction for such items. On the topic of taboos and traditional developments, the panel suggested that the reasonable approach to such situations would be to come to a consensus with traditional leaders rather than trying to disassociate ourselves from such matters. The panel then went on to address some additional questions raised by attendees before concluding the meeting with a satisfactory and substantively impactful discussion. Watch the full discussion here.
The event was a huge success and highly intellectualistic, bearing light on salient issues pertaining to the nation’s agricultural development while subsequently providing realistic suggestions for the government to consider in formulating agricultural policies.
We are deeply grateful for the important assistance and participation of our esteemed media partners, The Sikaman Times and Rainbow Radio International, whose dedication has been critical in magnifying our message and mission. Their extended coverage and informative reporting not only raised the awareness of our policy dialogue event, “Beyond Slogans: Rethinking Ghana’s Agriculture – Reflection on Some Key Policies and The Way Forward,” but also helped to engage a larger audience. We also express our heartfelt gratitude to Atlas Network, Liberty International, The Atlas Society, Alumni for Liberty, and Devine Economy Model for their continuous support and for being essential in raising the conversation on sustainable agriculture in Ghana.
Article by
Benedicta Nelmon
Benedicta is a scholar at the YAFO Institute. As an academic and a member of the YAFO team, she contributes to the organization’s scholarly and research work. She is responsible for writing articles and website posts as well as the preparation of reports.
