Associate Professor in Animal Breeding and Genetics at the Department of Animal Science at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Julius Kofi Hagan has called for the adoption of smart solutions to propel Ghana’s agriculture.
He said agriculture has moved beyond using physical strength to an era of technology and smart solutions.
He said, “The strength we apply to agriculture has not been very successful and we are where we are because we have not been able to take advantage of all the opportunities in the agriculture value chain and agriculture sector.”
Prof. Hagan, who is also the Vice Dean of the School of Agriculture said Ghana is touted as being an agrarian country economy and therefore the assumption is that the country should be able to produce enough to feed its population.
He made this assertion on ATL FM’s Atlantic Wave on the theme for this year’s Farmers’ Day Celebration, ‘Delivering Smart Solutions for Sustainable Food Security and Resilience” aimed at achieving food security in Ghana within the context of an increase in population growth and its accompanying food system issues.
Prof Julius urged the country to move beyond the old methods of farming to take advantage of the technologies available to make agriculture beautiful, and attractive to the youth.
“I teach animal science… We don’t teach people to rare animals and let them go out, look for food and come back. There are smart solutions that we need to apply in agriculture to be able to get what we need.”
Prof. Julius Hagan emphasized that until the country focuses on adopting smart solutions for farming and agriculture, importation will continue to soar higher.
He added Ghana will achieve increased Production as seen in other jurisdictions only when the necessary technology is used for agriculture.
He stated for instance that Coast leads in cocoa production due to better technology. He added that in the Netherlands or Brazil, birds are ready for consumption in 5-6 weeks. In Ghana, it takes about 10 weeks.
To him, this inefficiency leads to wasted time and money, making it discouraging and frustrating.
He bemoaned saying “It sounds discouraging, disheartening, and it gives me a lot of headaches because there are so many things we can do.”
Lack of continuation of national policy implementation he said, is a major challenge of the low or unsustainable agriculture results in Ghana.
As Prof. Hagan emphasizes, sustainable agricultural development requires long-term policies.
He said unlike some countries such as the US, Ghana and many African nations lack a clear long-term vision for agriculture.
Meanwhile, he stressed that Short-term approaches lead to artificial and unsustainable outcomes.
“Continuous improvement is vital for lasting progress in agriculture, rather than seeking quick but short-lived results,” he said.
Read more news here
Source: Eric Sekyi/ATLFMNEWS
