GHANAIAN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS URGED TO INVEST IN AGRICULTURE


BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE
The Ghana Agricultural Producers and Traders Organisation (GAPTO), has urged financial institutions in the country not to run away from the risks involved in investing in agriculture but instead, absorb risks and offer tailored solutions to address them by providing support through the construction of modernised irrigation systems.
Speaking in an interview on the programme “Time with C.E.Os” on a radio station in Somanya, Rite FM, the Secretary General of GAPTO, Mr. Haruna Agesheka, said “Banks should not run away from the risks involved in agriculture but rather absorb the risks by ensuring that we have water throughout the whole year to grow our crops, harvest them and pay back the loans they have offered to us.”
Admitting that agriculture is risky business in the country because of the rain fed nature of the sector, Mr. Agesheka said the over dependence on rainfall, especially in farming, has made some agriculture products unprofitable due to lean seasons and the lack of processing and storage facilities.
“Because we rely on the rains all year round for farming, the banks do not want to give monies to people who are involved in onions, leafy vegetables and tomato cultivation since they will not get their profits back at the end of the day,” he said.
The General Secretary said due to this Ghana has to import such produce from Burkina Faso, Niger, Cote d’ Ivoire and Togo during the lean season “even though Ghana has the same fertile soil in abundance such as these countries”.
He stated that the situation can be reversed “if financial institutions invest heavily in the construction of irrigation dams to increase productivity and sustenance.”
Mr. Agesheka urged that the instituted national food and agriculture fair (FAGRO), should therefore be supported by financial institutions, since it is the avenue through which modern techniques in irrigation systems will be outdoored.
He also charged the government to move away from piloting irrigation projects into a full scale implementation.
“It is about time governments do away with the pilot projects on irrigation and go into it deeply to sustain the sector,” he suggested.

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