The former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama has promised to revive the collapsing agricultural industry, most especially the cocoa sector.
In response to concerns raised by farmers in the Central Region, the ex-President, while speaking at the end of his two-day tour in the region, stated the cocoa sector played a highly essential role in improvement of the economy.
However, due to inappropriate policies made by the Nana-led government, the once buoyant cocoa producing sector is now an eyesore.
Touching on some contributions made by his government to ensure the improvement of the cocoa sector, Mr. Mahama said during his tenure, the NDC government’s decision to supply free fertilizers, seedlings and other inputs to farmers, resulted in a massive increase in annual crop yield.
However, the irrational policies initiated by the ruling government has resulted in a rapid reduction in national yield and placed the cocoa sector on the verge of collapse.
He reiterated that when the NDC started giving out free fertilizers to farmers, they knew it would help improve crop yield and as expected, they recorded a massive increase in produce in the year 2016/2017.
He stressed that he doesn’t understand why the current government will stop giving out free fertilizers and decide to sell farmers.
Furthermore, Mr. Mahama stated emphatically that it total wickedness for the current government to leave fertilizers in warehouses simply because farmers don’t have the financial capacity to buy them.
