Agricultural Articles
Many doubted him, some said it was not possible. One time Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more Genesis 37: 5
Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto assumed office in 2017 as the Minister for Food and Agriculture with a commitment and an agenda to transform agriculture and put it on a sustainable path of accelerated growth and development for larger economic and social benefits to the nation.
Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto on several platforms will often ask, ‘if Ghana is so much blessed with arable lands why do we still see so much poverty, Poor subsistence farmers who are living degraded lives?’ The yields of these farmers are well below their family’s requirements, which, in turn necessitates the importation of millions of tons of grain and animal products every year. Year after year the perpetuation of the dependency cycle continues and the poor get poorer and poorer.
Read more: Planting for Food and Jobs(PFJ); the Dream and Vision of Reality
Bernard Baruch an American financier and stock investor once said, “Agriculture is the greatest and fundamentally the most important of our industries. The cities are but the branches of the tree of national life, the roots of which go deeply into the land. We all flourish or decline with the farmer.”
The above statement sounds literally true, because the very existence of man depends largely on agriculture. For this reason, the priorities of the agricultural sector are aligned to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). They particularly respond to Goal 2 which assures to end hunger and ensure access by all people to safe nutritious and sufficient food all year round and Goal 8 which promotes sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth through high value added, labour intensive sectors as agriculture.