Deputy U/E Regional Minister reiterates gov’ts commitment to support farmers


The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Dr. Robert Baba Kuganaab-Lem, has said a number of interventions have been implemented across northern Ghana as a way of finding a sustainable solution out of poverty for rural farmers in Northern Ghana.  

He noted that the organizations implementing  these interventions allude to the fact that dry season farming is the surest way to reduce poverty, unemployment and also improve the nutrition of rural poor farmers especially the youth. 

He made the revelation in an interview with Radio Ghana’s Samuel Ayammah in Bolgatanga. 

The Deputy Minister said limited access to water to support farming activities especially during the dry season accounts  largely for the poor household incomes, rural urban migration and livelihoods among rural communities that depend on subsistence farming as the major economic activity in Northern Ghana. 

Dr. Robert Baba Kuganaab-Lem who is the NDC parliamentary candidate for the Binduri Constituency said residents in the Binduri district are predominantly farmers and always have problems with ready market for their farm produce.  

He said despite significant progress made by the government of Ghana in recent times in reducing poverty incidence in rural areas of the country there still remain some  challenges in food access, use and availability. 

He said in Ghana, the agricultural sector  is one of  the  most important sectors in the Ghanaian economy, saying the sector is a major contributor to the livelihood of the rural population. 

Dr. Baba Kuganaab-Lem said the sector employs about 80  percent  of the rural population and contributes directly to food security and also to economic growth through its extensive contribution to foreign exchange earnings, employment in the formal and informal sectors and also serves as the key source of raw materials to the agro-based industry in the country, saying it is for this reason that his outfit is organising farmers into identifiable groups so as to support them with logistics and link them with the buyers and exporters. 

He said the vegetable market in the north are always disorganised and so the farmers are always the losers. 

He said the factors affecting livestock and crop farming in the north have a knock-on effect on food prices, which fluctuate according to availability. 

According to him, this is compounded by the fact that few farmers have the means to store produce without spoilage through the lean season, or to transport their harvests from one area to another. 

Dr. Baba Kuganaab-Lem said farmers in the northern part of the country are also vulnerable to global price spikes for certain commodities, including rice among others. 

He said when given the nod to represent the people of Binduri in the upcoming general elections, he will support to sustain government’s policies to improve the health status of the people in the area. 

These according to him include educational drive on health facilities and incentives packages to attract and retain health personnel in the area.


GBC