Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II is entreating traditional authorities to offer their land as equity to farmers.

This, he says, will help address issues of the land tenure system stifling the development of agriculture.

The Asante overland has indicated that the present order, where traditional authorities sell lands to farmers, is contributing to food insecurity in the country.

He spoke at the Manhyia Palace when the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, paid a courtesy call on him.

“When farmers approach chiefs for land, they often quote figures for them to pay; I propose the lands be offered as equity for farming. In the olden days when there wasn’t civilisation, our forefathers were doing that,” he said.

The Asantehene acknowledged challenges with land acquisition for large-scale farming.

He further proposed that subsistence farmers on lands earmarked for large-scale farming should be absorbed to co-exist.

“If someone is looking for a place for large-scale farming but the land has subsistence farmers on it, we can make them co-exist on the same land. The subsistence farmers can be given the seedlings that the large-scale farmer wants to grow and roll them out together,” he added.

The Asantehene believes agriculture holds the key to the country’s economic development, indicating industrialisation and other sectors depend on agriculture.

The neglect of the agriculture sector by the youth is identified as one of the factors hindering agricultural growth.

Efforts to drive more youth into the sector, according to the Asantehene, should be made to get young people into the sector.

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, has indicated the government’s plans to introduce the ‘Feed Ghana’ programme to improve food security.

The programme aims to promote home gardening and also improve institutional farming.

By this, the country is hoping to save foreign exchange spent on food importation.

“We spend 24 million dollars to import onions annually; this amount, when saved, can impact the local economy positively,” Mr. Opoku said.

Already, some public schools are showing interest in starting farms within the schools.

The minister added that one of the institutions has made applications for poultry farming.

“The school wants to start poultry farming as well. Their aim is to be able to give students eggs as part of their meals. We will support them to realise the target,” he added.

The Minister indicated that the military, the prison service, and the National Service Secretariat are among the institutions being supported to establish farms.