Ghanaian farmers charged to implement wise management practices
Ghanaian farmers, farmer-based organisations and stakeholders in agriculture have been charged to initiate and implement wise economic and human resource management of the community for quality end results.
Admonishing the farmers, Mr. Sulley Adam, the Planning Committee Chairman for FAGRO 2011 and the Executive Head of Retail Banking at the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), said, stakeholders should continuously increase awareness of the technological importance of agriculture and develop competent and assertive agricultural leadership to make the sector more vibrant.
He made these remarks recently after an extensive tour and meetings by the FAGRO and Farm Channel delegation to the United States.
“It is amazing to see how farmers operate their businesses by taking every stage of the production process into high consideration. It is a whole Enterprise. They begin having an ultimate goal to satisfy their direct consumers and the processing companies they supply. They operate an effective value chain process with all the key actors in play, enhancing speed, efficiency and quality and this is something our farmers should wholly adopt,” he added.
Madam Cecelia Erzuah, Director of Finance and Administration, Ministry of Food and Agriculture who led the delegation was astounded when she visited the twenty-five thousand acres (25000) farm owned by Mr. Carl Hoeverson in Grand Forks, North Dakota. She said, “our farmers should come to speed with new initiatives and drive as no farmer in North Dakota cultivates a land, less than three thousand (3000) arces.”
Tony Mensah-Abrampah, Country Director of Praxis Africa and Project Leader of Farm Channel, an agricultural programme currently running on Ghana Television said, “there is a lot our farmers need to adopt and implement, if we have to move agriculture to a highly commercial level, a critical part of it, being ICT.”
Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, Exhibition Director of FAGRO added that FAGRO 2011 will take the lead by holding practical and interactive seminars, farm tours and farm modules aimed at beginning with the end in mind.
Some of the companies the delegation visited include The National Farmers’ Union, Northern Crop Institute, Agricultural Experiment Station Research Greenhouse Complex, American Crystal Sugar, Millennium Challenge Corporation and CaseIH/New Holland Plant.
By Edmund Smith-Asante