Most farmers still use cutlasses and hoes

Takoradi, Dec 3, GNA - About 98 per cent of farmers in the

country still use traditional methods like the cutlasses and hoes, Mr

Davis Korboe, the 2009 National Best Farmer, has said. He told journalists that agriculture could attract more people as well

as investors if only the needed environment was created in terms of

loans and procurement of equipment for farmers.

Mr Korboe said mechanised, farming which represented only two

per cent, was not enough to increase food production and added that

mechanization of agriculture was a must for the growth of the country. He said in developed countries agricultural materials such as

equipment were highly subsidized but "In Ghana, it is only fertilizers

that are subsidized" and asked "but where are the equipment to work

with?"

Dr Korboe suggested to the government to partner some financial

institutions to provide credit facilities for farmers to buy their own

equipment. Professor Nii Noi Dowuona, Dean of the College of Agriculture of

the University of Ghana, said agriculture was crucial to the economy

and therefore called on the government to do away with discriminatory

policies.