Agribusiness Consultant Urges Political Will to Implement Agricultural Solutions
Agribusiness and Finance Systems Consultant, Raymond Denta, has lamented Ghana’s persistent cycle of identifying challenges within the agricultural sector without taking concrete steps to implement already known solutions.
Speaking at the 14th Ghana Economic Forum during a panel discussion on the theme, “Value Addition for Currency Stability: Transforming Agriculture into an Industrial Powerhouse,” Mr. Denta observed that Ghana possesses the resources and expertise required to transform its agricultural sector but continues to fall short due to weak political commitment.
“It’s so sad that most of the issues we are talking about, we already have the solution for them. Ghana is a country blessed with good land, we have the people, and we have the technology,” he stated.
According to him, the current discourse on agricultural challenges merely revisits long-standing issues that have previously been resolved at various stages in the country’s history.
“Most of the problems we are talking about now, we’ve solved them in the past — whether it’s poultry, Ghana has been self-sufficient in poultry before; whether it’s cocoa processing, we’ve done that,” Mr. Denta noted.
He expressed concern that public discussions around agriculture have become repetitive, with stakeholders preferring to “romanticize” the challenges rather than take decisive action to address them.
“We seem to enjoy talking about the problem. Every year, we talk about the same issues while lacking the political will to implement the solutions,” he said, stressing that policy implementation remains the missing link in Ghana’s agricultural transformation agenda.
Mr. Denta emphasized that Ghana’s potential to become an industrial powerhouse anchored on agriculture is attainable if leadership demonstrates the resolve to execute policies and programmes already on the table.
“Listening to the Vice President and other stakeholders, I thought we didn’t even need this panel because all the issues and solutions have been set out. I just hope that for once, we move to the next level — we just don’t talk about the problems but act on them,” he asserted.
He concluded by calling for a renewed sense of urgency, insisting that Ghana has the land, the knowledge, and the technology to advance its agricultural agenda if leadership is willing to “do the needful.”
