The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Akoto Afriyie has recommended to Cabinet to compel the Health, Education and Gender and Children Protection ministries to purchase locally produced food for their activities instead of patronizing foreign produce.
This is understood will among others help in unraveling the circumstances surrounding the exploitation by middlemen with respect to pricing of food commodities, given that over the years Ghanaian farmers have struggle to market their produce after production.
The Minister made this disclosure in an interview with gardjaonline.org during a one day tour in the Eastern region to inspect the effect on army-worm infestation.
Most produce become wasted due to a number of factors including the unavailability of ready market to buy the produce after harvest. This notwithstanding, most smallholder farmers struggle in getting fair prices for their produce they take to the few markets.
It is against this background that the 2014 National Best farmer, Mr. George Asamoah Amankwa has applauded the move to get locally produced goods purchased by the ministries.
This, he said is a life time opportunity for Ghanaian farmers to take advantage in producing more for local consumption.
He said it is a laudable initiative that needs to be embraced by all government agencies.
However, he wants the policy to be backed by law so that, it might not be a one-day wonder, arguing that the sustainability of it is what matters most.
