Member of Parliament for Asunafo South Constituency, Eric Opoku, has indicated the NDC’s agriculture policy of giving cockerels to poultry farmers was carried out by the Akufo-Addo government in the 2020 budget statement.
According to the legislator, the budget statement of the 2020 fiscal year revealed the distribution of 105,000 guinea fowls and 80,000 cockerels to poultry farmers.
He expressed shock at the posture of the New Patriotic Party in ridiculing John Mahama for proposing the same policy dubbed ‘nkokɔ nketenkete,’ which literally means the distribution of cockerels to farmers.
“The NPP started this nkokɔ nketenkete in 2020. In their 2020 budget, paragraphs 273, Dr. Bawumia’s budget included 105,000 guinea fowls and 80,000 cockerels for poultry farming, but they behave as though Mahama’s poultry farm policy is a big deal,” he stated.
Speaking to Nana Jantuah on the KuroYiMuNsem show on Nhyira FM, Mr. Eric Opoku blamed the Akufo-Addo government for the poor performance of the agricultural sector.
He accused the government of fabricating figures to cover up for the decline in the indicators of the country’s agricultural growth.
The most shocking revelation he made was the government’s use of Ghana’s cocoa trees as collateral for a loan for a term of seven years.
“The recent growth rate in the agricultural sector is massaged; ours was genuine. The regular independent rating agency ‘SRID’ was replaced with politicians at a special secretariat to massage figures to favor the government in the Agric. Even the low production in the cocoa sector, from almost 969,000 tons in 2016 to less than 429,000 tons in 2023, which is a record of 21 years back.
“This shows how the agricultural sector has declined. In 2017, when NPP took over, Ghana made a loss of Gh¢395 million. They only claim to have made a profit of Gh¢2.3bn in 2023 through debt exchange. The office expenditures alone at COCOBOD exceeds their profit. As we speak, cocoa trees in Ghana have been used as collateral for a loan for a term of 7 years,” he stated.
Responding to how the NDC will improve the agricultural sector, Mr. Eric Opoku stressed the NDC’s ‘Feed Ghana Policy’ is a robust one aimed at supporting farmers and agricultural companies to boost local production.