PFAG WANT AMPLE FUNDING FROM GOVT AND BANKS

The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), the largest Farmer Based Organisation (FBO) in the country, says its role towards economic development and poverty reduction by government is very crucial and warned that, the persistent insufficient funding towards the agric sector (peasant farming) is inimical to the nation’s attainment of Middle Income Status and the Millennium Development Goal 1 by 2015.

According to the PFAG, banks and other financial institutions find the risk in investing in agriculture too soaring especially on small scale producers hence prefer services and other sectors of the economy. This, they observed, has worsened the plight of food crop farmers in the country considering the fact they find it difficult to access financial assistance in any form whatsoever to enable them sustain their activities or expand their farms.

National President of PFAG, Mohammed Adam Nashiru, who made these remarks at a training workshop organized for over thirty selected farmers from the Gushiegu District of the Northern Region in Tamale recently, said if the population of Ghana is projected to be 24 million of which over 60% are farmers, it is only logical for the State and financial institutions to pay serious attention to that sector of the economy in order to turn things round and which would also lead to the eradication of poverty which is the number one goal of the United Nations list of MDGs.

Economists say the failure by successive governments since the overthrow of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to develop and execute a sound supply chain and logistics strategy in support of the country’s development initiative is still a major hurdle towards Ghana’s goals of weaning herself completely from abject poverty and hunger.

Abundance of natural resources including gold, diamonds, timber, cocoa, just to name a few but, still socio-economically poor. Ghana is one of the few countries in the world to be blessed with much needed resources that can easily serve as a medium for major long term socio-economic development.

Additionally, the country is blessed with one of the most fertile agro soils in the world, yet its unemployment rate among the age category of 18 and 30 plus has remained among the highest in the world since 1970.

Speaking on the initiatives of the PFAG, Mr. Nashiru disclosed that the Association in partnership with Foundation for World Agriculture and Rural Life (FARM), a non-governmental organization based in France, has provided support in a form of credit facilities for groups of soya beans cultivators in the Northern Region aimed at eradicating poverty among farmers.

The farmers he said have been trained in good agronomic practices, group dynamics, financial management and post harvest loss some of which were repeated as training modules at the Tamale workshop.

According to Mr. Nashiru, owing to the successful implementation of the project which started in 2008 and the benefits accrued to beneficiaries such as being able to pay back credit schemes extended to them, pay children school fees, utility bills among others; the association increased the project area to cover seven Metropolitan, Municipal and Districts in the Northern Region where it is being piloted. They are Tamale Metropolis, Yendi Municipality, Gushiegu, Karaga, Savelugu-Nanton, Nanumba North and Nanumba South Districts.

Meanwhile, the project is expected to cover all the ten regions of Ghana with the sole objective of eradication poverty among members of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana and their families in totality.

Currently, the project has no time limit for sponsorship from FARM but the only problem that is likely to obstruct it will be the failure by the various beneficiary groups to pay back the credit scheme they have been provided with as assistance. An estimated 55,000 Euros is being disbursed to the farmers in several forms of support to enable them cultivate soya beans which is in high demand both domestically and internationally.