SIAKON MEDIA

Tamale, July 10, GNA - Naa Professor John Nabila, President of the National House of chiefs, has urged chiefs and the peoples of Northern Ghana to take effective ownership of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).

He said by that it would enable the programme to achieve its set objective of bridging the development gap between the Northern sector and the south.

He reminded the chiefs of previous failed development efforts in the North and observed that if chiefs were not consulted and did not give their support to development efforts, they might not succeed and provide the needed benefits to the people

Professor Nabila, who is also the paramount chief of the Wulugu in the Mamprugu Traditional Area said this at a roundtable consultation on the SADA, which brought together over 60 traditional authorities from the Northern, Upper East and the Upper West regions in Tamale on Saturday.

The roundtable reviewed the SADA Bill currently before parliament and made inputs on appropriate measures to speed up its implementation.

Professor Nabila urged the promoters of SADA to engage the chiefs and traditional rulers to ensure effective ownership of the organization and its programmes by the chiefs and the people.    

Dr Sulley Gariba, Development Policy Advisor on SADA in the President's Office, who briefed the chiefs on the main elements of the Bill, stressed that every effort was made to include chiefs in the governance of SADA.

He said SADA was created by the stakeholders of development in the three regions and noted that "for more than 50 years, chiefs have been at the forefront of the struggle to bridge the development gap between the North and the South", adding their efforts sowed the seeds for SADA today.

Dr Charles Jebuni, Technical Team leader of SADA emphasized that the road network as well as the improvement in water and air transport was central to the SADA strategy and stressed that SADA should be seen as an initiative to complement existing investments and therefore long-term funding was required to enable SADA mobilize the investments needed to transform the economy and society.

Making their contributions for input into the Bill the chiefs stressed the need to secure sustainable funding for SADA to undertake its projects over a 20-25 year period and noted that the deplorable conditions of the road network in the regions and urged SADA to focus primarily on accelerating the improvements of the road network as a matter of priority.

On the land issue, the chiefs pledged their commitment to release lands for the accelerated development and to become partners in the process.

The inputs and suggestions on the Bill by the chiefs would be forwarded to Parliament, while a delegation from the roundtable would seek audience with the President to present their views on SADA to the President.

GNA

Accra, Aug. 25, GNA - Stakeholders in agriculture on Wednesday appealed to Government to increase investments in the smallholder agricultural sub-sector, to improve food production and eliminate poverty among Ghanaians. 

They were participating in the opening session of the National Conference on Smallholder Agricultural Development Financing, in Accra.

It was organised by SEND-Ghana in collaboration with the Parliamentary Select Committee on Agriculture, Ghana Federation of Agricultural Producers, Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana and Agricultural Platform of Ghana Aid Effectiveness Forum.

It is on the theme; "Investing in Smallholder Agriculture; The Ultimate Policy Choice for Ghana," and expected to highlight critical challenges faced by smallholder sub-sector to help attract policy attention.

They underscored the critical role of the sub-sector to the attainment of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), because women constituted a vast majority of players in this sector.

The participants said increased government investment in terms of budgetary allocation to agriculture was critical to increasing rural income and food security.

Mr Samuel Zan Akologu, Country-Director of SEND-Ghana, a research and advocacy organisation, speaking at the event, said it was ironic that in spite of the nearly universal acceptance of the potential effect of agriculture and the fact that more than 70 per cent of Africa's population earn a living through agriculture, the sector was still characterised by low productivity.

Mr Akologu said that agriculture was the predominant economic activity in Ghana and Africa, where the poor and greater number of the labour force were engaged in agriculture.

He said the sector's growth offered a potential model for spearheading broad-based poverty reduction and increased food security in the country.

Mr Akologu stressed that a prosperous agriculture generated growth linkages to the rest of the economy, providing cheap food, raw materials, and a growing demand for growing processing and service industries.         

"Participants are expected to collate views and propose strategies on modalities for financing and establishing budget lines for smallholder agricultural development, develop a proposal on their financing and secure the commitment of government to increase and sustain resource flows to the smallholder sub-sector," he said.

Mr Akologu enumerated challenges such as the decline in soil fertility, unfavourable market liberalisation policies, high interest rates as well as limited access to financing, post harvest loses and poor access to and use of technology that were hindering progress in smallholder performances.

He challenged Government and its development partners to rededicate themselves to the enforcement of the Maputo Declaration of committing at least 10 per cent of budgetary allocation to agriculture.

Nii Amasah Namoale, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in-charge of Fisheries, highlighted specific policies which sought to enhance agriculture in Ghana.

He said Government placed agriculture at the core of its development agenda and was committed to enhancing capacities in the sector to ensure maximum impact.

Nii Namoale called for enhanced public-private partnership to revamp the agricultural sub-sector and urged financial institutions to expand their services to smallholder farmers to help increase production and ensure quality packaging to meet the current market demand and competition.

Mrs Dorothy Onny, Deputy Director in-charge of Gender Desk, Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs, said the Ministry had developed policies and programmes including capacity building of smallholder women farmers, providing micro-financing as well as the provision of processing plants to improve market quality of products.

She said the Ministry had in addition, encouraged the development of gender responsive budgeting and ensured that gender issues were mainstreamed into policies and programmes at all levels in the country.

GNA