The President of the Chamber of Agribusiness, Anthony Morrison has called for diversity in the agricultural sector to meet the growing taste of the public.

Mr Morrison on PM Express on Thursday noted that the strategy must take into consideration all the steps involved in food production, nutrition and consumption.

“What is the whole national big strategy that influences the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the deregulated agricultural industry which is the district?

“It must emanate from the farmer to the very lowest market off-takers, the restaurants, export, and others,” he said.

The President of the Chamber of Agribusiness further added that sections of the country with high agriculture contributions must be identified to effectively boost their production.

Mr Morrison also sees aquaculture and livestock to be the most distressed sector in agriculture in Ghana.

“They are the industries where most governments haven’t made a lot of investment. And I do not quite blame them, because you need to eat first before you think of the meat or protein,” he explained.

Speaking on ‘Agricultural Financing’, a Representative of the Ghana Agricultural Chamber of Commerce, Philip Abayori said farmers need to be given short medium and long term financial credit to cultivate their crop.

“If I am planting maize I know for the next 90 to 94 days before it is ready and I have to dry it and take off the husk which can also take 3 months so in all it will take me 8 to 9 months to get it ready for the market. So if I am given short term credit I may not be able to pay when my time is due”

Mr Abayori further stated huge post-management challenge is a major cause of the problems in the agriculture industry in Ghana.

He indicated that policies initiated by the Food and Agriculture Ministries are not efficiently implemented thus the current state of the agriculture sector.

“We must ensure the enhancement of various sectors so that there are energy and cooperation within the value chain.

“When you have a vibrant crop sector, you are producing so much rice and maize you have huge biomass that is the waste which then could be transformed to feed livestock,” he said.

However, the Representative was worried that the cooperation and unity amongst the value chain have not been properly established.

“An efficient agricultural management and efficient value chain are what we need. But this is not happening at all in our agricultural sector in Ghana. We burn all the biomass that we have from crops to ashes and that is one deficiency,” he said.

He advised that products from the agriculture sector need to be promoted adding that “You should be able to enhance your strength and make sure that you have all the value chain working.”