Today is FARMERS DAY

Accra Mail EDITORIAL: Greetings To All of Those Who Feed Us

Today is a holiday dedicated to our farmers, fishermen and all those who work in the agricultural sector.We cannot thank them enough.

Any country that is incapable of feeding itself cannot also talk of economic development.

Since we gained independence from Britain in 1957, we have proved totally incapable of satisfying our food needs from our own resources. Indeed, Ghana's markets are now swamped with food imports from all over the world. Some of these foods we have to source from other countries are foods we could easily produce ourselves. Let's take rice for example. Media reports have revealed that the country spends US$100 million annually to import rice, when Ghana should have been self-sufficient in rice production.

Even the basic staple of plantain has sometime had to come from our neighbour Cote d'Ivoire - a country with the same climatic characteristics as us. Curiously, even the plantains from the Cote d'Ivoire are much bigger than what we grow here.

We have become in some respects a dumping ground of sometimes-unwholesome food from abroad. Professor Akosa, the immediate past president of the Ghana Medical Association has been very concerned about our eating habits, especially when fatty turkey tails, imported - or rather discarded - from abroad became something of a delicacy.

Agriculture has suffered seriously since we gained independence and we must get our production, storage and distribution strategies right or we cannot get on to the next rung of the ladder of progress. Food must be available. Food must be cheap.

Once our food requirements are met, all else will fall in place.

We wish our food producers well. Ayeekoo, netuma, Akpe...