The leader of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has stated that if he is elected president in the general elections of 2024, agriculture will be his first concern.
He promised farmers that in order to adopt best practices and technologies, he would work with nations with higher crop productivity, such as China and Brazil.
In order to increase productivity, Dr. Bawumia promised to set up District Agricultural Mechanization Centers in farming districts, offering reasonably priced equipment.
As part of his campaign tour, he said these things during a courtesy call on Sandem-Nab, Nab Azaksuk Azantilow, Paramount Chief of the Builsa Traditional Area in the Upper East Region.
“Agriculture is going to be my number one priority. We will make sure that we have all the different pillars in place for farmers.
“I want to bring in the best practices from countries like Brazil and China that have higher productivity in crops such as maize and rice. We want to also learn from them to adopt some of those technologies that are giving them two or three times the yields per acre that we are doing.”
Dr. Bawumia also pledged to move Ghana’s emphasis away from chemical fertilizers.
“I want Ghana to move away from chemical fertilizers for our soil to lime. Lime is the way forward. We have limestone in Ghana and it is much cheaper than the fertilizer, and we want to help the farmers with this new soil fertility treatment through lime.”
