Mr Edward Kareweh, General Secretary, the General Agricultural Workers Union (GAWU), has indicated that the country needs efficient structural policies, to maximise the competitiveness of the agricultural value chain.
He claimed that improving productivity along the various value chains was necessary for an efficient and effective input supply system in order to increase the competitiveness of the agricultural value chains.
Mr. Kareweh was speaking at a one-day seminar on the topic of “Ghana’s Agricultural Value Chain,” which was organised by the Ghana News Agency to give state and non-state organisations a forum to discuss national concerns and advance development.
Mr Kareweh explained that formulating the right policies and allowing it to be championed by competent leaders would improve crop productivity and product quality along the agricultural value chains.
He said there was a need for the government to create an enabling environment to help facilitate linkages between core value chain actors and support services, including financial services, technical advisers, and mechanisation services to producers.
“Things are not done properly. Incompetent application of laudable policies had created a problem where food is cheap at the farm but expensive on the side of the final consumer. There is food in Ghana but locked up at the farm gate, things are not well,” he said.
Government policies must provide specific incentives to agricultural equipment dealers and users to help expand smallholders as key stakeholders.
“We must not blow our own trumpets that we are working. Let those we are serving judge. We must not praise a project because of its beautiful features, we must rather do that after seeing results,” he said.
