NDC govt to introduce guaranteed prices in agric

Ohawu, Oct 21, GNA - A government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would introduce minimum guaranteed price for farm produce and establish a bumper stock management agency to buy and store excess farm produce.

These measures would be part of a plan to ensure stable income for farmers, guarantee food security and promote modernized agriculture and industrialization.

Mr John Mahama, NDC presidential running mate, said this when he addressed students of the Ohawu Agriculture College and the Ohawu community on Monday on the second day of his campaign tour of parts of the Volta Region.

He said a future NDC government would also create an agricultural development fund into which levies on food imports would be paid towards subsidizing the agriculture sector. Mr Mahama said the situation in which the country has since 2001 been accumulating high annual food import bills was an indication that the agriculture sector had been neglected and this is not good for the country's ability to achieve economic stability.

He said a government of the NDC would take far reaching measures to reverse the situation to include upgrading agriculture training institutions and agriculture extension services among others. "District plant pool services to offer tractor services, sometimes on credit, will be established as well as district advisory services in addition to a vigorous irrigation plan," Mr Mahama said. He therefore urged the electorate to vote massively for the party towards the realization of its agriculture development agenda for the country.

Mr Mahama was also at Tadzewu, Wheta, Afife, Ehi and Keta.