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| Edward Kareweh |
Edward Kareweh, Deputy General Secretary of the General
Agricultural Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called on the
Government to move away from the export led development mindset. That mindset,
he said, is as an ideological orientation which retards progress.
Pointing to a major flaw in government policy, he explained
that our continuing support for every production that leads to export of raw
materials reinforces our dependency because we do not produce what we consume
at home.
“To use state resources to meet the taste of foreign
consumers and further the development needs of external people is detrimental
to the national interest and runs contrary to the principles that underline nation
building.
Edward Kareweh was speaking at a workshop organized to
evaluate the benefit of the Export Trade, Agricultural and Industrial
Development Fund (EDAIF) for small holder farmers in the Brong Ahafo, Greater
Accra and the Northern Regions.
The
Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) currently the Export Trade,
Agricultural and Industrial Development Fund (EDAIF) was established by the
Export Development and Investment Fund Act, 2000 (Act 582), and it became
operational in 2001 as an agency of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The
act was, however, amended in 2001 by the Export Development and Investment Fund
(Amendment) Act, 2011 (Act 823), to expand the scope of application of the fund
to include the development and promotion of agro-processing industry, hence the
change of the name of the fund to EDAIF.
EDAIF
operates by handing over money to designated financial instructions or banks
like Stanchart, Stanbic and the ADB. These banks then evaluate prospective
applicants to find out about their financial viability before they get the
funding. The challenge for many farmers is that they need to write proposals
which are assessed to find out if they meet the criteria. This presents a
challenge for most farmers who cannot read nor write good proposals.
In
spite of the concerns raised, Micheal Awuku, a top official at the EDAIF
Secretariat says export oriented development is the bulwark of the economic
policy of the Government of Ghana adding
that the main thrust of Government's foreign trade policy has been the
endorsement of Private Sector led export development. He said the policy would
offer the country substantial increase in foreign exchange receipts and appreciable
opportunity for growth but Ben Kanati, a rice farmer from Ashaiman disagrees.
According to him funding that encourages the production of
cash crops for foreign markets does not benefit small holders who produce local
and indigenous crops to feed the majority of the Ghanaian people. “That
attitude deprives local farmers of the needed revenue to expand and grow more
to meet the local market. On the other hand pressure builds for lower tariffs
for already highly subsidised imported goods which in turn affect government’s
tax revenue. When that happens, it constrains government space and we end up
going to borrow from IMF and the World Bank with attendant negative social consequences.
The primary source of funding for the EDAIF fund is money
realized from the divestiture of state enterprises.
Madam Victoria Adongo, Programmes Officer of the Peasant
Farmers Association of Ghana says small farmers also want to go commercial by
expanding not for export but to meet the increasing demand for the local
market. According to her, a halt in the import of frozen chicken and support to
the local poultry industry will also benefit maize and soya farmers because
they provide quality feed for the poultry industry.
In his contribution to the discussion, Kweku Boateng, a
vegetable farmer explained that South Africa has the biggest vegetable market
in the world because the government set up councils to support farmers.
According to him, vegetable farmers in Johannesburg for instance send their
produce to the Johannesberg Food Council who buys them and sell on the local
market. Cocoyam, potato and cassava farmers have grades which determine the
prices of their produce.
Mr Boateng is calling on EDAIF to use the money in their
possession to build infrastructure and make markets available for farmers to
sell the product of their labour, make money and thereby remove the over
reliance on grant and credit facilities.
