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Business & Finance

Create land banks for farms – Agriculture expert

By : Kofi Kafui Sampson on 12 Sep 2019, 11:16

Farm land

Some investors in agriculture have said solving the issue of land acquisition will be a major step in solving Ghana’s food security issues.

According to them, this will reduce the cost of agriculture businesses and reduce the high cost of food production in the country.

Speaking at a launch of a training programme for young graduates in Agriculture, Director for Living Field, Afotey Odartey Fio noted that the high cost of food could be solved by the creation of land banks to make agriculture more attractive to investors.

“Yes, there have been a lot of talks that the government should get land banks for people to use for Agric.  That will be a good way out and I think that is the best way forward. Or individuals can secure lands which they will use for Agriculture”

He lamented on how citizens rather use their lands for real estate rather than agriculture.

“People can secure lands, but they use it for real estate. As I was saying, there are so many housing estates. But we don’t have anyone doing agriculture estate, or a place with lands split or prepared for Agric. So that could be one way forward” he said.

He urged business people who are able to create land banks for homes to also consider creating land banks for farms

“Since the country has business people that can create land banks for homes, they could also create land banks for farms” he added.

Meanwhile the Chief Technical Officer for RMG Ghana Limited, Kenneth Nii Adde also called on the Ministry of Agriculture to intensify sanction against Farmers whose produced will be rejected by other markets particularly in Europe.

Ghana is currently facing a ban to the African Union (AU) market for some leafy vegetable export. The concern has been over the presence of some harmful substances in such produce.

MR Nii Adde believes that a naming and shaming regime will ensure that defaulters pay for any amount spent on their training since the move is a dent on the country’s image.

“As much as possible, we shouldn’t stop training our farmers as to the requirement outside. There is a globalization of everything we do. That is why most of our exports are supposed to be global gab certified” he said.

He added that Ghanaian farmers must be trained to conform to all the things involved in the global gap certification.

He also stated that citizens must expose farmers who are not willing to do the right thing.

“Apart from that, we should be ready to name and shame  people who are causing disruption in this foreign exchange we are losing.”