Food security experts have noticed a thin line between agriculture and poverty eradication.
The problem in merging the gap to realise result is the quality of investment channeled into the sector.
Though government appears to commit considerable amount of money into the sector, strategic mechanisms to track it proper utilisation is missing.
At a national stakeholders dialogue in the agriculture sector in Accra, donor partners say if care is not taken, Ghana could lose international funding into the sector due to the absent of positive evidence in the lives of people especially the rural poor.
Since agriculture is said to be the main stay of Ghana’s economy and considered the vehicle to drive out poverty in the country, government invest heavily in the sector.
The sector received the second highest budget allocation after education in this year’s budget.
It contribution to gross domestic product last year was 7.1 percent providing jobs for some one million people in Ghana.
In this regard, the sector received various financial supports from donor partners across the globe.
The World Bank for instance increased its support for the sector from 15 to 35 percent in 2015.
Despite these and many other donor supports, the sector continues to grapple with numerous challenges from improved seeds to modern irrigation systems.
SEND Ghana at a dialogue with the donor partners and government identified a number of setbacks. Siapha Kamara is the CEO of SEND West Africa
Country Director of OXFARM, Sebastian Tiah said government now more than ever has the obligation not to fail the many Ghanaians who depend solely on agriculture as their livelihoods.
This is why proper accounts of the monies that goes into the sector must be rendered in order to achieve results
Moving forward, the experts say government must begin to consider agriculture as any business intended to make profit.
Also institutions charged with the responsibility of turning the sector into a viable and lucrative venture to attract investors must be resourced properly and be made accountable for monies channeled into the sector.
