Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), has pledged to support Ghanaian farmers with tractors and credit to enhance productivity and reduce food prices.
During a campaign rally in Wa East, Dr. Bawumia highlighted the critical role of farming in ensuring food security and affordability. He stated, “Farming is the key to bringing food prices down, and we are going to help the farmers increase their productivity.”
Dr. Bawumia compared Ghana’s average maize yield of four tons per acre to Brazil’s and China’s yields of 10 and 12 tons per acre, respectively. To bridge this gap, he promised to introduce advanced farming practices from these countries to Ghana. “I’m going to apply the practices that have worked in Brazil and in China to our farmers in the Wa East District, to increase productivity,” he said.
Additionally, he announced plans to establish “super aggregators” to purchase produce directly from farmers, ensuring fair prices and reducing post-harvest losses. “We are going to establish super aggregators who will come and buy the produce from the farmers so that the food does not go to waste and they can get good prices for their goods,” he explained.
Dr. Bawumia also stressed the importance of using lime fertilizers to improve soil fertility, pointing out that Ghana has abundant lime deposits. He said, “We are going to help the farmers with tractors and with credit for them to harvest and we are going to move from the normal fertilizer to lime. Lime makes our soil very fertile, and we have lime in Ghana, and we are going to help our farmers use lime in Ghana.”