Government urged to focus on market access for PFJs produce

The government has been urged to push for more market access components under the planting for food and jobs programme for farmers to enjoy the full benefits of their toils.

Mr Isaac Pabia, the Regional Representative of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), in the Upper East Region, said the situation looked gloomy for farmers this year since they were not sure of the available market.

The Regional Representative, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga, in an interview said farming had ‘become a lottery and a dicey business to venture into.’

He said since the last cropping season, prices of inputs such as fertilizer and weedicides had been increasing.

‘We need to start thinking of packaging too because we produce and allow market agents to decide how much to buy the produce. Now we do not know if what will be produced will attract a good market,’ he said.

He said farmers diverted to the cultivation of soya beans in the last planting season because of challenges with the price of farm inputs and with the expectation that the crop requirement for fertilizer was minimal and would reduce production cost but that did not work out well as they could not sell their produce.

He said farmers had hoped that poultry farmers would patronize soya beans on the local market but that disappointed them because those in the poultry business complained of the high cost of soya which would make the feed too expensive.

‘Where the supply is higher than the demand, people are forced to give away their produce at very low prices,’ he said.

He added that some farmers were selling their produce at giveaway prices and only sorghum had a ready market and farmers were sure their produce would be bought by the breweries.

He expressed surprise that the existence of the buffer stock company had not helped much, especially as it had failed to mop excess produce particularly soya beans from farmers.

‘We are going out of focus as a country and very soon people will go out of farming and this year farmers are already demotivated to crop soya beans.’

He said it was time the government lifted the moratorium on soya beans to allow the farmers to sell their produce because even though the rains had started the signals for soya cultivation were not good.

Source: Ghana News Agency