The former director of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFA), Dr Charles Nyaaba, has urged the government to focus on creating the right business environment for farmers rather than continuously providing direct support, stressing that farming should be treated as a viable business.
Speaking on the JoyNews AM Show on March 9, the Executive Director said that while he agreed with some of the proposals being discussed, he disagreed with the notion that the government should continue to feed or directly sustain farmers.
According to him, farmers must be empowered to operate as businesspeople.
“Government cannot continue to spoon-feed farmers. Farming is a business, and many farmers are taking it as a business,” he stated.
Dr Nyaaba, who is also the CEO of Akuafo Nketewa, explained that the role of government should be to create an enabling environment that allows farmers to transact and grow their enterprises, whether they are working directly with government or operating independently.
“If you want something to be a business, what you need to do is create the environment that allows them to do business and to transact business, whether with government or without government,” he said.
He also dismissed suggestions that the country’s agricultural challenges stem from inadequate production capacity, noting that the real issue lies in farmers’ inability to secure reliable markets for their produce.
“The problem is not about a lack of enough produce in the system. The problem is that farmers are producing and losing interest in expanding their farms the following year because they are not getting markets,” he explained.
Drawing from personal experience, Dr Nyaaba recounted how tomato farmers in the past struggled with market access despite large harvests.
“I grew up on a farm. My father was a tomato farmer. Our entire farm was dedicated to tomatoes. I still remember in 2008, farmers harvested so much but struggled to sell,” he said.
He added that such situations discourage farmers from expanding production in subsequent seasons.
Dr Nyaaba further referenced the government’s earlier commitments to support agriculture through mechanisation and partnerships with the private sector, noting that such initiatives are crucial for improving productivity and strengthening the agricultural value chain.
“We were promised that the government would create more mechanisation centres and also support the private sector to work with farmers. Those are the kinds of interventions that can truly transform the sector,” he noted.
He stressed that policies aimed at strengthening markets and improving access to modern farming services would encourage farmers to scale up production and treat agriculture as a sustainable business.
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