A senior lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana, Dr Priscilla Twumasi Baffour has asked the government to grow the agric and manufacturing sectors of the local economy simultaneous in order to create the right jobs for the teeming youth.
She explained during the pre-budget analysis on TV3 Wednesday November 17 that a buoyant agric sector will ensure that the manufacturing sector has raw materials to operate with.
If, for instance, the manufacturing sector, is develop above the agric sector there will not be enough locally-produced raw materials to feed the industry, she explained.
“You are not creating enough jobs in the agriculture sector because you are mechanizing it , you do not have a lot of people in there. When you look at developed countries , you can take the USA, Canada for example, less than two percent of the population is into agriculture but they are able to produce to feed themselves and export because the whole process is merchandised and when that is done. So I am saying that with Planting for food and jobs and those initiatives, those are the kinds of things that we expect government to be investing in so that it is not as usual, let us give them fertilizer, employ more labourers on the farm field.
“We need to move a step ahead in adding value to the price that come out of the agricultural sector and that moves us into light manufacturing in the manufacturing sector.
“When you are able to do that the agric sector feeds the industrial sector and that is where massive jobs are created and that is where the jobs that a lot of the young people are looking for can be provided.”
Meanwhile, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said that several measures have been taken by the Akufo-Addo administration to ensure food prices stability in Ghana.
Speaking in an interview with TV3’s Nana Akua Aborampah Mensah ahead of the 2020 budget presentation on Wednesday November 17, he said “To the extent that storage and privatize production and sale and market pricing operate , you will find that even the prices differ from market to market though you may see a general trend But I think you can also agree that there is a lot that has been done in terms of boosting local food production and expected to come along in the increase I local food productions , stabilsation of the prices.
“ The warehousing system that can store a lot of the products so that you don’t have shortage at some times and abundance at another time which will cause price flucatuations and you have seen the number of warehouses that have been put up across the country and handed over to the various assemblies or the agencies .
“So over time we should expect that there will be some more stability in that area if we follow the trend of things we are doing
“Generally, some more works need to be done to ensure that that stability that we are talking about , that stability doesn’t just come , it is about what are we doing to ensure that what we all want happen and what we need to do is to ensure that the warehousing system works, is to ensure that the support to the farmers is not cut at any point in time , fertilizer etc.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana