Flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has pledged robust support for Ghanaian farmers by introducing lime as an alternative to traditional fertilizers and providing tractors on credit to boost agricultural productivity.

He stressed that this shift from traditional fertilizers to lime will significantly improve agricultural productivity.

“We are going to help the farmers with tractors and with credit for them to harvest and we are going to move from the normal fertilizer to lime. Lime makes our soil very fertile, and we have lime in Ghana and we are going to help our farmers use lime in Ghana,” he added.

Speaking at a campaign rally in Wa East, Dr. Bawumia underscored the essential role of farming in ensuring food security and reducing food prices.

He emphasized that enhancing farming practices is pivotal to achieving these goals and committed to supplying farmers with the necessary resources to increase their yields.

Highlighting the disparity in agricultural productivity, Dr. Bawumia noted that farmers in Brazil and China produce 10 and 12 tons of maize per acre, respectively, compared to Ghana’s average yield of four tons per acre. To bridge this gap, he promised to introduce advanced farming techniques from Brazil and China to Ghanaian farmers.

“I want to help our farmers. Farming is the key to bringing food prices down and we are going to help the farmers increase their productivity. If you go to Brazil, an acre of land, maize can come to 10 tons; in China, they can get 12 tons, but in Ghana, we get only four tons. I’m going to apply the practices that we are seeing that have worked in Brazil and in China to our farmers in the Wa East District, to increase productivity,” Dr. Bawumia stated.

In addition to adopting new farming practices, Dr. Bawumia announced plans to establish “super aggregators” who will purchase produce directly from farmers. This initiative aims to ensure farmers receive fair prices and minimize post-harvest losses.

“We are going to establish super aggregators who will come and buy the produce from the farmers so that the food does not go to waste and they can get good prices for their goods,” he said.