Augstine K Gyau, once the National Best Rice famrer for the Ahafo Ano North District has been into commercial rice production for over 16 years. all activities fro cultivation to harvesting is handles by himself and family members with no support from else where.
Early this last year the government introduced rice farmers in them to the Inland Valley Rice Development Project but the contractor showed up once with his machines only to not return again. All their hopes of an external help dashed.
During his "high years" of rice farming he sold a kilogram of rice at a price determined by market women. After
fixing the price of a bag of rice, the market women also
load the bag without any scale.
This
is the “pittance reward” many smallholder farmers are
getting out of their sweat to feed our population. The reason is mainly
because smallholders act alone in the production and marketing of their
produce all the time.
This goes to confirm that though many years of research and experience
had shown that small farmers acting alone did not benefit from higher
food prices and income, many African countries including Ghana, are
still not taking advantage of agricultural cooperatives and or
associations.
Farmers
acting collectively in strong producer associations or organisations
and cooperatives are better able to take advantage of many opportunities
including market access, bargaining power, and fairer commercial
conditions, which help them to mitigate the effects of food and other
crises.
In
recognition of this and many other reasons, the United Nations’ Food
and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), has decided to throw the
searchlight on cooperatives towards the celebration of this year’s World
Food Day, which falls on October 16th every year.
“Agricultural
Cooperatives: Key to Feeding the World” is the chosen theme for the
2012 World Food Day to increase the understanding of the role and
importance of agricultural cooperatives and producer associations or
organisations in achieving food security and reducing poverty.
As
Ghana and all other countries observe the Day, governments are expected
to promote the formation of such special enterprises as a way out of
hunger and poverty.
It is affirmative that smallholders will provide much of the extra food
needed to feed more than nine billion people in a few years to come and experts have
noted that one of the steps to achieve food security is to support and
invest in cooperatives.
A true cooperative can be defined as “an
autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their
common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a
jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise”.
Cooperatives are present in all countries and in sectors including agriculture, finance, food, health, marketing, insurance, credit, etc. Cooperatives are also a good avenue for job creation and emplyment.
In
Ghana, the agric sector is made up mainly of smallholder farmers, who
are disadvantaged in accessing inputs, credit, extension services and
markets for their produce. Through the activities of FBOs, farmers
strengthen their bargaining power in the market place, and ensuring
equity and a cost-effective extension service delivery system.
FBOs
also facilitate the dissemination of information on agricultural
technologies and best farming practices that are environmentally
friendly. Strong groups could also empower their members to influence
policies that affect their livelihood. However, currently in Ghana,
most FBOs are weak in terms of financing and organization.
Statistics
show that in 2008 the top 300 cooperatives were responsible for an
aggregate turnover of US1.1 trillion dollars, which is the size of the
world’s tenth largest economy, Canada and nearly the size of Spain.
In
Kenya, 70% of coffee, 76% of dairy, 95% of cotton are owned by
cooperatives; in the US, dairy cooperatives control about 80% of dairy
production; In Columbia, the national federation of coffee growers
provides production and marketing services to 500,000 coffee growers; In
Brazil cooperatives are responsible for 40% of the agricultural GDP and
six per cent of total agribusiness export.
Cooperatives
need government and Governments need cooperatives. Whereas government
regulation of cooperatives is important, it is equally important that
cooperatives have the autonomy to govern and manage themselves by
formulating their own bye-laws. In some countries like the US and Costa
Rica, cooperative education has been mainstreamed into schools
curricular.
The formation of Cooperatives will help empower the small holder farmer and also improve his living conditions.
" The Best Culture is Agriculture"
Akwasi Tagoe
with notes from GNA- Lawrence Quartey
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