Joy FM's Super Morning Show co-host and commercial farmer, Kojo Akoto Boateng has called for greater investment in large-scale farming, arguing that it is essential to Ghana’s industrialisation.

According to him, “For the longest time we’ve been talking about smallholder farmers, smallholder farmers, smallholder farmers, and for me it’s not the route to industrialisation.”

Akoto Boateng made the call while discussing the Ecobank and Joy Business Financial Dialogue held on Tuesday, September 22.

He said Ghana needed to move beyond its longstanding focus on smallholder farmers. “If you want to industrialise, you need to expand the farms so that you can improve quality, consistent supply, irrigation, and all that.”

Mr Akoto Boateng said large farms could create thousands of jobs while supplying produce for export and manufacturing. He cited Golden Exotics, which he said employed more than 5,000 people and exported bananas worth millions of dollars.

He also pointed to Miro Forestry, saying it employed more than 5,000 people across Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Those employment figures were his claims during the discussion.

He criticised what he described as an approach centred on small distributions of seeds and fertiliser to farmers who depend on rainfall. Farming, he argued, needed better planning and stronger links to buyers and manufacturers.

“It should be scientific. It should be structured. It should be business-led, and it should be able to support manufacturing,” he said.

The media personality and commercial farmer urged banks to work with the government and private sector to mobilise substantial funding for medium- and large-scale farms over the next five years.