Accra, Nov 18, GNA – The Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition (GTLC) has engaged stakeholders in the Upper West region on gender-responsive budgeting to discuss the needs and challenges of farmers under the government flagship programmes.
The forum of the trade and agriculture policy and practice advocacy and research organisation shared findings from a data, which contained the views of male, female, youth and persons with disabilities farmers for gender responsive national budgeting.
The programme, which was focused on the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme, provided a platform for the farmers to engage duty-bearers towards enhancing gender equality in the government agriculture policies.
This will go a long way to ensure that those left behind would be captured.
Mr Emmanuel Wullingdool, Policy Officer of GTLC addressing the forum said the organisation was aimed at assessing the impact of the government policies and policy interventions.
He stated that there was the need to work collectively towards an inclusive development agenda, by reducing economic inequality in the government agriculture programmes.
« Ghana’s population is expected to reach 30.5 million by 2020 at an annual growth rate of 2.36 per cent of which the agriculture sector is expected to play a leading role in feeding the population, providing income and employment opportunities along its chains », he indicated.
He added that the PFJ policy was launched to mobilise access to both input and output markets and thereby directly motivating farmers by providing adequate subsidiesed fertilizers, tractor service, extension service, credit, and improved seeds to increase crop yields and indirectly generate employment opportunities along the value chains.
Farming provides the lifeline for millions of livelihood in the country by offering work and food.
Predominantly, about 75.29 per cent of rural households are engaged in operating small farms and livestock, while about 22 per cent of urban households also engaged in agricultural activities.
Mr Wullingdool therefore appealed to the government to implement modernised agricultural policies to strategically enhance the transformation of the economy by focusing on gender-responsive budgeting.