Minister condemned media for poor publicity

Major Courage Quashigah (Rtd), Minister of Food and Agriculture on Sunday condemned the poor media publicity of the 1st Ghana International Food and Agric, dubbed "AGRIFEX 2001".

He said: "I am surprised about the poor publicity of this important fair by the media, while they spent time and resources to promote foreign cerebrations such as Valentine and other programmes."

Maj. Quashigah made this observation during the closing ceremony of the week-long AGRIFEX fair in Accra and called for a change of attitude towards made in Ghana goods.

The fair was jointly organised by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and the Ghana Trade Fair Company Limited (GTFC) to provide the platform for interaction among farmers, researchers and agro-industrialists.

It also served as a meeting point for ideas and goods, and opportunities for producers, traders, buyers and consumers, with the view to projecting agriculture as a business.

Maj. Quashigah also expressed concern about the apathy of the private sector operators and financial institutions towards the fair, saying that a platform created for interaction between they agencies was not properly utilised.

He, however, said that the ministry would create a system to link stakeholders in the agricultural industry, especially the ministries of Health, Education, Roads and Transport, and Finance to harness resources to promote agriculture in the country.

The Minister said through the Education Ministry, all second cycle institutions have been tasked to submit agricultural business proposal for technical and financial assistance.

The secondary schools and the youth would be assisted to develop interest in farming and produce to support their subvention as well as processing of food.

The exhibitors urged the organisers to liaise with other foreign experts and farmers to share ideas with their Ghanaian farmers, while advising that sponsors should also devote resource for media publicity in future.

They called for financial assistance for farmers, especially small-scale and women farmers.

The exhibitors commended the organiser of the fair, which helped exposed farmers to other modern techniques.