President Mills has said it is vital for the nation to re-examine the rate at which food products are imported with substantial amounts at the detriment of the agricultural sector. President Mills made this call during the 2010 Farmers’ Day celebration held at Somanya in the Eastern Region Friday morning. The president expressed dismay at the extent to which the country continues to import large amounts of cereals and other food requirements worth over billions of cedis and stressed the need to take adequate measures to check the trend. The president stated “I am reliably informed that in 2009 we imported almost 500 million dollars of rice. These colossal amounts have gone to support foreign farmers and their economies at the expense of our farmers and job creation efforts.” He however added that “the duties imposed on selected food imports in the 2011 budget are intended to address this gross imbalance.” President Mills went on to congratulate Ghanaian farmers and fisher folks for working hard and making the country self-sufficient in most sectors of food production and their contribution towards improving the production of food in the 2009 season. “Despite the global financial crises which have resulted in hunger and poverty across the world, Ghana once again exhibited resilience through the untiring efforts of our farmers and fisher folks who in 2009 produced 23.1 million metric tonnes of roots, tubers and plantain,” he indicated. President Mills said the government is not going to rest on its oars at this achievement but will rather work to ensure that the country achieves the needed results in the agriculture sector as the government gears up towards attaining projected economic growth. In view of this President Mills said his government is undertaking key projects to gain the maximum results from the sector. These include subsidizing 100,000 metric tonnes of fertilizers as well as subsidies on mechanization costs for farmers. The mechanization cost, he said, will help farmers gain access to affordable mechanization facilities to help with production. President Mills further said “we have also introduced in the 2011 budget an Agriculture Fund. This will release additional funds to our farmers” as well as expanding irrigation facilities especially for small scale irrigation projects. “We want to encourage our farmers to engage in all-year round farming. To this end, we have drilled a number of boreholes in Greater Accra, Ashanti and Central Regions and we hope to continue to the other regions,” the president revealed. Story by Derick Romeo Adogla/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana