President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reiterated his commitment to ensure that our hard-working farmers reap greater benefits from their toils.
Supporting his commitment to better the lives of Ghanaian farmers, the President noted that statistics indicate that Ghana and Cote d’ Ivoire contribute to about 60% of the world’s cocoa output.
Sadly and in the light of the above, these two countries earned US$5.75 billion out of the export of cocoa beans in the year 2015.
This, according to President Akufo- Addo, “cannot and should not continue.”
President, Todaycannot but agree with you that our farmers deserve a better deal than what they are being offered from the export of their produce.
It means, therefore, that we must take the bold step of ensuring that our farmers get value for their toils and hard work.
And this is where Today agrees wholeheartedly with President Akufo-Addo on the need to add value to some of the products we export to foreign countries.
Indeed adding value to many of our agricultural products has the added advantage of giving our farmers good prices. And this President Akufo-Addo has affirmed is a major pre-occupation of his government.
We hope government will not only focus on cocoa farmers but will cast its net wide by involving farmers of other products. At least such farmers will also have the assurance of fixed and good prices for their products.
In our view, it is about time we began implementing policies that will motivate our farmers to expand production and also encourage the teeming youth of this country into farming. This, we believe, must start now.
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