Asantehene urges chiefs to offer lands as equity for farming – Nsemkeka
Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, is entreating traditional authorities to offer their land as equity to farmers.
This, he says, will help address issues of the land tenure system stifling the development of agriculture.
The Asante overland has indicated that the present order, where traditional authorities sell lands to farmers, is contributing to food insecurity in the country.
He spoke at the Manhyia Palace when the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, paid a courtesy call on him.
“When farmers approach chiefs for land, they often quote figures for them to pay; I propose the lands are offered as equity for farming. In the olden days when there wasn’t civilization, our forefathers were doing that,” he said.
The Asantehene acknowledged challenges with land acquisition for large-scale farming.
He further proposed that subsistence farmers on lands earmarked for large-scale farming should be absorbed to co-exist.
“If someone is looking for a place for large-scale farming but the land has subsistence farmers on it, we can make them co-exist on the same land. The subsistence farmers can be given the seedlings the large-scale farmer wants to grow and roll it out together,” he added.
The Asantehene believes agriculture holds the key to the country’s economic development, indicating industrialization and other sectors depend on agriculture.
The neglect of the agriculture sector by the youth is identified as one of the factors hindering agriculture growth.
Efforts to drive more youth into the sector, according to the Asantehene, should be made to get young people into the sector.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, has indicated government’s plans to introduce the ‘Feed Ghana’ program to improve food security.
The program aims to promote home gardening and also improve institutional farming.
By this, the country is hoping to save foreign exchange spent on food importation.
“We spend 24 million dollars to import onions annually, this amount when saved can impact the local economy positively,” Mr. Opoku said.
Already some public schools are showing interest in starting farms within the schools.
The minister added that one of the institutions has made applications for poultry farming.
“The school wants to start poultry farming as well. Their aim is to be able to give students eggs as part of their meals. We will support them to realize the target,” he added.
The Minister indicated the military, prisons service and National Service Secretariat are among institutions being supported to establish farms.