Agriculture sector grew from 7.4 per cent in 2020 to 8.4 per cent...

The Minister for Food and Agriculture, says the agric sector grew by 4.7 per cent in 2019, followed by 7.4 per cent in 2020 and 8.4 per cent in 2021.

Mr Owusu Afriyie Akoto said with the rains this year, it was expected that the substantial growth performance of recent years would be repeated.

Mr Afriyie Akoto said this on Wednesday when he delivered a statement on the floor of Parliament on the impending celebration of the 38th National Farmers Day on the theme: “Accelerating Agriculture Development through Value Addition”, to be held at the Jubilee Park of the Eastern Regional capital, Koforidua, from Tuesday, November 29 to Friday, December 2, 2022.

Mr Afriyie Akoto said the rapid growth in recent years had increased the share of the agriculture sector in Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 18 per cent in 2016 to 22 per cent by 2021.

He added that notable impacts in the sector were visible in the food crop sub-sector, where farmers received help from subsidised inputs programmes and millions of seedlings of six selected tree crops distributed free of charge to farmers throughout the country as part of the diversification agenda of the government.

Mr Afriyie Akoto acknowledged that while the supply chain had been disrupted resulting in an acute shortage of critical inputs like fertilizer, the animal sector had also been hit by diseases such as swine flu and highly pathogenic avian influenza with farmlands destroyed by galamsey activities.

Mr Samuel Atta Akyea, NPP MP, Akim Abuakwa South, called for the theme to translate into a reality that would move farming in the country from ancient agriculture and said there was a need for policies and undertakings that were not helping the farming sector to be channelled to focus on agriculture’s substantial gains.