Immediate-past Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto says he has strong believe that Agriculture will lift Ghana out of poverty and assure the nation of food and nutrition security.
According to him, this will also generate the necessary resources for the development of the other sectors including Industry, Health, Education and Infrastructure in the medium to long term.
Speaking at his lecture on the topic: THE FUTURE OF THE ECONOMY OF GHANA -TRANSFORMING AGRICULTURE FOR THE PROSPERITY OF ALL at the University of Professional Studies, Accra, Monday March 13, 2023, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto observed that globally, there is a new economic order emerging which is evident from the current economic challenges confronting the world.
He noted that Food, Renewable Energy, Water and Big Data, will drive this new order. Africa, and for that matter, Ghana, has the potential to lead this new order by strengthening all sectors of the economy and transforming agriculture sustainably to feed and enrich its people, whilst contributing to the food and nutrition needs of the 9.7 billion people by 2050 as estimated by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
“In Ghana, we are facing many challenges such as high rate of unemployment at 13.9% as at the second quarter of 2022, high rate of inflation at 54% as at February 2023 as well as the economic crisis which we find ourselves in, now. Ghana’s dream of using agriculture as the driver for economic development can be traced as far back as the 1920s when the then governor, Gordon Guggisberg made pronouncements backed by initial investments to make agriculture work. Successive governments since then have made various attempts towards agricultural development in this direction. Yet there has been inadequate commitment to full agricultural transformation.”
The former MP for Kwadaso added: “However, as the immediate past Minister for Food and Agriculture, I am confident that the Akufo Addo government has laid a solid foundation upon which a thriving sustainable agriculture can be built in the coming years, for the prosperity of all.”