<<Print>>

2014 National Best Farmer, George Asamoah-Amankwaah, has stated that farming in Ghana is an �unattractive� venture which government must take measures to ensure that people, especially the youth, develop interest in it. Mr. Asamoah Amankwaah�who is also the owner of Europa Foods�stressed that government would have to do more to make farming an attractive business. According to him, many people including the youth wanted to make farming their main occupation, but existing conditions have become stumbling blocks for most of them. �Farming pays a lot, and therefore it is important for government and stakeholders to ensure that the youth who are unemployed develop interest in agriculture,� he indicated. Mr. Asamoah-Amankwaah made these observations when he spoke on Amanasan Television (ATV) in Accra over the weekend. He disclosed that Ghanaian farmers are saddled with three main problems. These, he said, were the lack of infrastructure, financial support and availability of a ready market for their farm produce. Many farmers, he asserted, were unable to venture into large scale farming due to financial constraints. The national best farmer was equally worried about how some banks treated them when they go to them to seek for loan facilities to expand their business. His concern, however, was the high interest rate put on loans that farmers contracted. �If the interest on loans that we contract is too high how do you expect us to do better in farming?� he asked. �Farmers must have access to bigger loans without high interest,� he suggested. Concerning infrastructure, he appealed to government to help subsidise some of the farming equipment. He further appealed to government, if possible, to waive taxes on some of the heavy duty farming machines to enable them meet their operational cost. On the availability of ready market for farm produce, Mr. Asamoah Amankwaah pointed out that Ghana was lucky to have two seasons�peak and lean�unlike other countries where there is only one season for their farm produce. And in the light of that, he said there should be a way for government to help farmers to store their farm produce during the peak season. To this end, Mr. Asamoah Amankwaah promised to use his current status to advocate for more incentives for farmers so as to woo the youth in particular into farming.