Mr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister for Food and Agriculture, says the agriculture sector grew by 4.7 per cent in 2019, followed by 7.4 per cent in 2020 and 8.4 per cent in 2021.
He said with the rains this year, it was expected that the substantial growth performance of recent years would be repeated this year.
He attributed the earlier significant gains to the investment the government made in various subsectors of agriculture.
Mr Afriyie Akoto said this on Wednesday when he delivered a statement on the floor of Parliament on the impending celebration of the 38th National Farmers Day on the theme: “Accelerating Agriculture Development through Value Addition”, to be held at the Jubilee Park of the Eastern Regional capital, Koforidua, from Tuesday, November 29 to Friday, December 2, 2022.
The National Farmers’ Day was instituted by the Government of Ghana to recognise the demanding work of persons in the agricultural sector.
Mr Afriyie Akoto said the rapid growth in recent years had increased the share of the agriculture sector in Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 18 per cent in 2016 to 22 per cent by 2021.
“Mr Speaker, these impressive results were posted by the sector against all odds, when multiple external shocks and unfavourable external global conditions impacted every economy including Ghana,”.
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He added that notable impacts in the sector were visible in the food crop sub-sector, where farmers received help from subsidised inputs programmes and millions of seedlings of six selected tree crops distributed free of charge to farmers throughout the country as part of the diversification agenda of the government.
According to him, the government recognised the impressive performance of the agricultural sector was due to the sacrifices and tireless efforts of heroic farmers.
“As a people, the least we can do therefore is to continue to celebrate and reward our farmers with rising farm productivity and income,” he said.
Mr Afriyie Akoto acknowledged that while the supply chain had been disrupted resulting in an acute shortage of critical inputs like fertilizer, the animal sector had also been hit by diseases such as swine flu and highly pathogenic avian influenza with farmlands destroyed by galamsey activities.
He pledged and called for collective responsibility towards the development of the country’s agriculture sector being the main driving force.
“Mr Speaker, the theme aligns with the government’s vision of modernizing and transforming agriculture, relevant objectives of the President’s Coordinated Programme of Socio-economic Development Policies, and the Sustainable Development Goals one and two which advocate the eradication of extreme poverty in all forms and zero hunger, respectively.
“The theme also highlights the government’s recognition and commitment to sustainable development and transformation of Ghana’s agriculture as well as signifies the government’s appreciation of the need to fully harness the potential of agriculture,” he said.
The Minister said the strategic intervention and the success of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) campaign, informed the government’s efforts to address the long-standing problems of Ghana’s agriculture.
