Prof Mills outlines ambitious agricultural plan for Ghana

Page 16: June 19, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Professor John Evans Atta Mills, yesterday announced an ambitious agricultural policy that would see Ghana doubling its food production to meet local consumption and export.
Under the policy, Prof. Mills said, an NDC government would canalise the Accra Plains, rehabilitate all irrigation dams and build new ones, as well as build a fertiliser factory in the Western Region to support agricultural production.
He expressed regret that Ghanaians were spending more of their incomes and earnings on food.
Prof. Mills was speaking at the Institute of Economic Affairs’ (IEA) programme “An Evening Encounter” in Accra yesterday. The presidential candidate of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom has already taken his turn at the forum.
The programme, which is a collaboration between the IEA, Joy FM and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, is to afford presidential candidates of the various presidential candidates an opportunity to present to the electorate their vision and plans and to provide strategies on how they intend to govern the country.
Prof. Mills said his government would also continue with afforestation programme and encourage bamboo cultivation.
He said his administration would institute measures that would resuscitate local poultry industry and protect the country’s fish stocks.
He said the problem with the country had been one of lack of implementation of the nice policies that had been drafted.
Prof. Mills said he would not plunder the state coffers for the benefit of his family, relatives, friends and party members.
He said he was coming into government with the core values of truth, honesty and humility and one of character.
He said as a social democratic party, the NDC believed in caring for the people and not championing the policy of survival of the fittest, stressing that “we should be each other’s keeper and not everyone for himself, God for the selected few”.
Prof. Mills said an NDC government would prove to Ghanaians and the whole world that government should be a tool in the service of the people and not to aid people to loot state resources.
He promised to use the whip to deal with offending officials and gave the assurance that he would adhere to good governance by responding to the concerns of people and solving problems, among others.
Prof. Mills noted that the current global economic and fuel crises had brought additional hardship to Ghanaians coupled with upsurge in crime.
He said contrary to the rising incidents of crime, the police were giving information that crime was on the decline.
That, he said, could be so because people had lost confidence in the police and were, therefore, not reporting criminal offences to them.
He said he would convene a stakeholders meeting in which the expertise of knowledgeable persons, irrespective of their political affiliation, would be tapped to deal with the problem.
Prof. Mills noted that instead of the police being on the forefront of fighting crime, the institution itself was fighting to redeem itself.
He gave the assurance that he would revive and restore public confidence in the police service.
On the issue of drugs, Prof. Mills said Ghana was fast earning the reputation of a drug nation because the perception out there was that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government had created the environment for drug trade to thrive, stressing that “no wonder the numerous probes have not yielded any result”.
He said his administration would revive regional intelligence sharing to help deal with cross-border crime.
Prof. Mills said his administration would not allow drug dealers to use Ghana as a base for their trade and gave the assurance that “Ghana will adhere faithfully and diligently to the UN Convention on Drugs”.
On the economic front, he said his administration would encourage increased domestic savings and also cut on government expenditure and encourage the private sector to take the lead.
He said infrastructural development would be the hallmark of his economic development policies, especially industrial development.
On education, he said an NDC government would address the infrastructure shortcomings of basic schools, expand the School Feeding Programme to cover all primary schools, provide uniforms to needy pupils and also ensure the deworming exercise was implemented to the letter.
He said an NDC government would not reverse the educational policies of the NPP administration but would convene stakeholder fora to agree on the way forward.
He said the NDC did not believe in total cost recovery but cost-sharing at the tertiary level and would also provide incentive package for science and mathematics students.
Prof. Mills said the issue of quality education was dear to his heart and would, therefore, ensure that teachers were properly trained and remunerated to provide excellent teaching.
He said he did not have a problem with the law of causing financial loss to the state but the NDC’s concern had been with the interpretation of the law.
He said an NDC government would not repeal the law until a time that the party and Ghanaians would agree that it should be repealed.