2010 Budget Statement-PUSH FOR AGRIC (Front Page)

AGRICULTURE, with emphasis on the local production of rice, fish, poultry and livestock, has been handed a massive impetus in the government’s 2010 budget and financial statement.
The measures, as contained in the budget statement read by the Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, in Parliament yesterday, included the restoration of duties on imported rice, wheat, yellow maize and vegetable oil which were removed during the food crisis of 2008.
With an overall objective to modernise agriculture, the budget introduced a number of initiatives to also change the face of rural Ghana, increase the scale of production and productivity, enhance food security, create employment opportunities and cut down on the use of foreign exchange for food imports.
“The target is that Ghana should be able to meet the domestic demand for fish and poultry by the year 2012,” it said.
“The strategy to replace hoes and cutlasses, as the main implements of production, with tractors, power tillers and bullock ploughs still remains in place,” Dr Duffuor said.
He indicated that the government would promote large-scale public-private commercial framing, provide agricultural machinery and equipment, enhance their distribution and provide resources to rehabilitate irrigation schemes, particularly the Tono and Vea Irrigation schemes.
Throwing more light on the issue, the Finance Minister said the project would be supported by the standardisation and improvement in the quality of seeds, double the production of millet and sorghum by 2012, as well as double the cultivation of vegetables and provide training to increase technology and the knowledge content of aspects of food crop value chain.
He stated that the government was aware of the threats posed by the indiscriminate dumping of goods and services in the country, thereby making domestic production uncompetitive, adding that even in sectors such as food and agriculture where the country had competitive advantage, indiscriminate importation had robbed it of the benefits of domestic production.
To cut down on imports of poultry and fish into the country, Dr Duffuor hinted that the government would levy duties on those imports and support local production, adding that “the target is that Ghana should be able to meet the domestic demand for fish and poultry by the year 2012”.
He stated that to ensure that the target was achieved, the government would support farmers through the provision of standardised and quality rice seedlings, machinery and equipment, chemicals and fertilisers and also look at the issue of high cost of production attributable mainly to the high interest rates charged by commercial banks.
In addition, he said it would, as a matter of importance, support fish production by constructing fish landing sites and cold stores in the main fishing towns along the coast, as well as supply high-powered outboard motors to fishermen.
“The government will also assist poultry farmers to acquire equipment, chicken feed, chemicals and other inputs to enable them to undertake large-scale chicken production in the country,” he pointed out.
On cocoa production, Dr Duffuor said the government was looking at hitting 1,000,000 metric tonnes by 2012, adding that that was why it was encouraging cocoa farmers by paying 71.1 per cent of the net FOB value for cocoa exports for the 2009/2010 season.
“This translates to GH¢2,208 per tonne, compared to the GH¢1,632 per tonne paid during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration in the 2008/2009 season,” he said.
He added that the government had also directed that bonuses totalling GH¢50 million for the 2008/2009 main crop season should be paid in two instalments to farmers: 50 per cent in November 2009 and the remaining 50 per cent in April and May 2010.
The Finance Minister further stated that in October this year the government provided seed money of GH¢15 million for the establishment of the Cocoa Farmers Social Security Fund, adding that it would continue to support the implementation of the Special Cocoa Farmers Housing Scheme, the mass spraying of cocoa farms, improvement in road condition in cocoa growing areas and the replanting and rehabilitation of old cocoa farms in the Eastern, Ashanti and Western regions.
“These interventions, we hope, will provide enough incentives to farmers to step up production to meet the target of 1,000,000 tonnes in 2012,” he stated
Dr Duffuor also touched on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Ganges Jute West Africa Limited and COCOBOD for the establishment of a jute factory in Kumasi and said the government would provide all the needed support for the implementation of the project without delay.
He said the government would support CALF Cocoa, a cocoa processing facility which he described as the largest in the region, to take off to enable it to contribute to the economic growth of the country.