Allocate 70% of budget to the agriculture sector – Nsuta Kwamang MP proposes

The Member of Parliament for Nsuta Kwamang Beposo constituency in the Ashanti region, Mr. Kwame Asafu Adjei, has proposed 70 percent of the national budget to be channeled to agriculture sector in the next budgetary allocation.

The agric sector which remains the main stay of the country’s economy, receives a minimal allocation of its national budget every year, contrary to the Maputo Declaration which the government of Ghana consented to.

The development, the MP said had dawdled the growth of the sector for the last few years.

“The agriculture sector is challenged by the inadequate and untimely release of funding and it is incumbent upon us as a nation to take a critical look at the sector, arguing that, our number one priority area as a nation should be agric centered.”

He made these remarks during a ‘National Stakeholders Conference on Agriculture,’ organized by Feed the Future’s Northern Ghana Governance Activity (NGGA) and SEND – GHANA to create a platform for stakeholders to discuss potential strategies to ensure the sustainability of agriculture in Ghana.

I think we have come of age, that a country of 28 million people and all of us eat each day and if we want to support smallholder farmers then our number one priority should be to ensure that 70% of the country’s budgetary allocation goes into agriculture, he stated.

He entreated industry players to take charge of the agriculture sector. He said, “we don’t have absolute control of our minerals and oil, but the only commodity and legacy that we have in Ghana is investing in agriculture.”

Mr. Asafu Adjei said Ghanaians shouldn’t over rely on the revenue from the mineral resources but be encouraged to invest more in the agriculture sector to take it a step further from where the country’s forebearers left it.

He further appealed to the government to increase investment in the sector.

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