The Cashew Watch Ghana (CWG) has encouraged political parties to make agriculture the fulcrum of their manifestoes towards economic recovery and emancipation of Ghana.

The group said a nation that cannot feed itself is not independent, adding that political parties must pledge to support farmers and fishermen with the necessary incentives to increase their productivity when they assume power.

According to them, this will increase incomes, reduce poverty and boost the country's foreign exchange earnings.

The National Coordinator of CWG, Raphael Godlove Ahenu, in an interview with JoyNews at Sunyani in the Bono region, stated that a vigorous plan must be put in place to set up agro-processing factories and provide them with the necessary inputs to add value to agricultural produce in to prevent the annual glut experienced by farmers.

He said irrigation should be the backbone of every political party's agricultural revolution to move the country from depending on rainwater for farming.

Mr Ahenu further suggested that this will sustain an economic growth rate of not less than 10 per cent yearly for at least two decades or beyond.

“About 80 per cent of the national population derived its livelihood from self-employment in land-based economic activities, such as crop cultivation, poultry and fishing farming, attributing the lack of real economic growth of the country to the neglect of the vast population of operators in the private sector,” Mr noted.

He added that “agricultural development is the same as rural development and poverty alleviation”.

He indicated that every government must be ready to provide subsidies to local rice and small-scale poultry farmers to increase their production and to further cut the importation of rice and other poultry products into the country.

The National Coordinator of CWG stated that the School Feeding Programme under any administration should use locally produced polished rice and add a piece of locally grown chicken to each child’s lunch to encourage local rice and poultry farmers to do more.

“We at CWG urge all political parties to include in their manifestos the effective use of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) and the National Investment Bank (NIB) established to provide the necessary assistance for both agriculture and agro-based industry growth of the country,” Mr Ahenu added.