Farmers Day is 26 years old and is an important day for Ghana to appreciate our farmers and to reward excellence in husbandry practices, ecological awareness, use of new technology, contributions to the local community etc. Much of our national economy revolves around agriculture, so it is very appropriate that as a country we reserve a date to honour our farmers and seek to provide them a day off from their labours. As the day has also been an occasion for government to announce its agricultural plans and development policies, the CPP wishes to register its views on this most important day for Ghana and its farmers. We wish to firstly commend and applaud our farmers for their dedication and hard work, and to thank them on behalf of our fellow citizens. We believe that on its 26th anniversary Farmers Day should serve as an important opportunity for us as a country to reconsider the fundamental importance of agriculture - and the degree to which the global and independent nature of human society today requires a re-thinking of our attitudes and approaches to our food production and distribution to ensure food and nutrition security. In our declared ambition to take control of our national economy, and against a backdrop of an expanding domestic population with intensified demands on agricultural resources, we believe that our current agri-food system is not sustainable. Our country spends approximately US$500 million of its hard-earned foreign exchange annually on the importation of rice. We spend similar amounts importing tomatoes, plantain and other foodstuffs. This colossal amount goes to support farmers abroad and other economies at the expense of our own job-creating opportunities in agriculture and related sectors. The CPP believes that Agriculture provides an opportunity for solving our chronic mass unemployment situation and thus a CPP government would revive Ghana's local manufacturing industrial base and encourage the use of local raw materials by manufacturing industries to boost production in the country's agricultural sector. A number of critical issues confronting our farmers today include the phenomenon of large scale farm land acquisition by multinational and other companies and its impact on small scale farmers and food production. Our government should act to protect the interest of our small scale farmers and food supply. Farmers also need protection against risks with a National Insurance as well as a Pension Scheme. We should prioritise industrialisation and modernisation of agriculture as a key tool for Ghana's development and open up opportunities to change the relationship between agriculture and industry. Additionally, we should also encourage and strengthen out-grower schemes. Ad-hoc agreements would be replaced by coordinated commercial relations between producers, traders and processors (industries) which would lead to the vertical integration of the agriculture value chain. Out-grower schemes in the agricultural supply chain presents opportunities for globally active firms and local smallholder farmers alike adding, agri-businesses that had land issues could also use contract farming with local farmers to overcome constraints. A CPP government would tap into new technologies in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to improve the agricultural sector and encourage industries to open up in areas where raw materials for their products were readily available. This would provide ready markets for produce of local farmers and create employment for such local communities. A CPP administration would also provide motivation packages for agricultural extension officers in all districts to enable them provide better services to farmers and ensure the establishment of youth-in-gainful-agriculture clubs for graduates in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and chiefs to help increase the number of youth going into agriculture as a business. We will protect Ghana's local industries from foreign competition, and the influx of cheap foreign goods. The country's infant industries must be nurtured by government until they were ready to compete in the global market places. Protective duties or enhanced duties on foreign goods would be employed to enable local manufacturers compete with their foreign competitors. Much as it is wise to provide cocoa farmers with improved seedlings the CPP believes that the government should provide subsidized improved seeds for other food and industrial crops and subsidized fish hatchery to increase fish production through aquaculture. We also believe that the government ought to help farmers increase fertilizer application in order to increase crop production in the country. Statistics show that Ghana's fertilizer application rate is one of the lowest in the world, standing at 8kg/ha, compared with 20kg/ha in sub-Sahara Africa, 99kg/ha in Latin America, 109kg/ha in South Asia and 149kg/ha in East Asia and South-East Asia. This low application rate was attributed to among others, the high cost of fertilizer. We need to utilize our indigenous knowledge systems to save yam species and other local crop species that are at the brink of extinction. The Convention People's Party has always valued the contribution of farmers towards the attainment of our independence. The CPP continues to appreciate our farmers efforts to national development for which we will forever applaud and salute them. SIGNED: Nii Armah Akomfrah Director of Communication