[ 2012-02-26 ]

Oil production should not lead to not neglect of agriculture - Asamoah
Mr Kofi Asamoah, General Secretary of the Trades
Union Congress (TUC), has called for effective and
pragmatic strategies to promote the sustainability
of the agricultural sector of the economy.

He said every effort should be made to protect the
sector and cautioned against over-reliance on the
oil and gas resources for national development
adding that “we cannot afford to fail as a nation
because we have lessons of other African countries
producing oil to guide us.”

Mr Asamoah said this when addressing the closing
ceremony of the ninth quadrennial delegates'
conference of the General Agricultural Workers'
Union (GAWU) in Kumasi.

The three-day meeting brought together more than
300 delegates from across the country to discuss
ways of safeguarding the rights of the workers and
how to achieve sustainable development of
agriculture.

The TUC General Secretary expressed worry that
despite the sector's significant contribution to
the economy, it remained the least rewarding and
blamed this on the dependence on nature,
traditional farming methods and the use of the
cutlass and the hoe.

He said the future looked gloomy as incomes from
agriculture were expected to dip further because
of the adverse impact of climate change.

Mr Asamoah said it could therefore not be business
as usual and that more is needed to be done to
deal with the threat and ensure sustainability.

He encouraged the Union to work hard to assist
tackle the challenges facing the sector and boost
production.

Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, the Food and Agriculture Minister,
in a speech read for him said that the government
had put in place a number of interventions to
enhance agricultural sustainability for national
development.

He said they would also continue to engage GAWU to
plan and implement programmes towards national
food security and management preparedness, incomes
and growth, market access and sustainable land
management and the environment.

Mr Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, General Secretary of the
Union, spoke of their determination to remain at
the fore front of the effort at fighting low
productivity.

Source - GNA

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