A development consultant, Samuel Anyan-Kusi, wants an extensive conversation to be held on a worrying phenomenon where farmlands are being replaced with buildings across the country.
According to him, the trend poses “food security threat” to the country.
“It is a national crisis; unfortunately no one seems to be talking about it. If you travel along the whole country, all the urban towns are sprawling and absorbing all the otherwise rural areas noted for farming and other activities,” he said.
Mr. Anyan-Kusi expressed the concern on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday.
Some Ghanaians have raised concerns over the leasing out of farmlands to real estate companies and individuals for building purposes thus reducing the size of the country’s vegetation cover.
“What I want the government to do is that, we need some advocacy and awareness creation by all stakeholders. We have to start working with MMDAs and our traditional councils to start a dialogue. I think there should be a conversation over the issue,” he added.
Ghana’s population as of 2010 was a little over 24 million, but recent projections pegged it at about 30 million.
As the population continues to increase with urbanization fast catching up on farming communities, there is a greater desire for housing and development projects.
This compels owners of farmlands to sell their farmlands in a bid to ensure development is fast-tracked.
Agric census projects drop in farming population
Preliminary results from the 2018 agriculture census have shown a considerable reduction in the farming population in Ghana.
According to the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the last census conducted some 33 years ago showed that within every 4.7 million households there was at least one person engaged in farming.
“The preliminary results are very interesting. 33 years ago when the last census was done, there were 4.7 million households with at least one person doing farming. This number has reduced to 2.6 [million] this year [2018]. So there has been some structural changes going on, and I’m looking forward to the final analysis to see what other changes have come,” he noted in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show in December 2018.
A Ghana Statistical Service Labour force report found that as education levels increase interest in agriculture declines.
The report stated that 18 percent of people with no education want to go into agriculture, compared to only 2 percent who had two or more degrees.
Accra is worse
According to Mr. Anyan-Kusi, although the reduction in the size of farmlands is rampant in other parts of the country, “the case in Accra is far [more] serious than in other regions.”
“If you look back 25 years ago and you look at the topography of Accra, you will be amazed to see the difference between that time and now. I don’t even know where the size of Accra ends. We have sprawled over almost up to Winneba. We have gone beyond Nsawam heading towards Suhum. We have sprawled and we are almost catching up to the mountain towns. We’ve gone beyond Tema and we are heading towards Dodowa. If you go to Kumasi, Ho and others it’s the same,” he added.
He said the current crop of Ghanaians are doing a disservice to the next generation because they have given out majority of the lands.
“My concern as we look at the sprawling has to do with food security in the future…It’s like we are doing a disservice to the next generation to come. We have to do everything possible to preserve the land for the future generation. We have to have a dialogue; there should be a conversation,” he added.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey | citinewsroom.com | alloteygodwin@gmail.com | Ghana
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