GTLC crafting prototype business plans for small farmers

Ho, Sept 3, GNA - The Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition (GTLC) is crafting prototype business plans that could help transform dreary micro agricultural ventures into sustainable businesses, Mr Lambert Luguniah, the Acting GTLC Programme Manager told the Ghana News Agency in Ho.

This was at a GTLC Volta Regional Chapter sensitization public forum on the effective business planning in agricultural production.

He said the plans crafted for agriculture businesses in Jana in the Northern Region and Kasseh in the Greater Accra Region with few adaptations could become relevant to similar ventures in any part of the country.

Mr Luguniah said farmers generally approached their jobs as ordinary chores and this approach must change to enable the country raise food production.

He said evaluation tours by GTLC around the country on its education and advocacy programmes showed that many farmers were picking seeds at random for planting instead of using certified seeds.

Mr Luguniah said GTLC also found that the capitalization of farming ventures, through mechanization services, was also poor as many tractor and other machine pools either had too few to go round or none at all.

Rev Alexander Avor, GTLC Volta Region Focal Person, expressed reservations that agricultural policies hardly affected the peasant farmers who produce the bulk of the nation’s foods.

He appealed to the government to ensure that this year’s Farmers Day would provide the forum for the government to announce policies that “would boost the confidence of the ordinary peasant farmers and resuscitate the lost hope…”

Rev Avor said while storage and irrigation techniques had found expression in well prepared budgets for the past 20 years, that sector was still fraught with many challenges.

He called on government to re-impose import duties on certain food items, especially rice, poultry products and tomatoes.

Two resource persons took participants through business plan preparation and prospects in agricultural business in Ghana.

The GTLC organizes periodic forums during which pressing problems of farmers in each of the 10 regions in Ghana were discussed.