Former President John Dramani Mahama has admonished the current government not to buy tractors for farmers in the country, saying that was a major mistake his administration made.
He explained that as part of efforts to boost agriculture, his administration bought tractors for farmers across the country but realized the equipment became dormant because the farmers couldn’t maintain them.
According to Mahama, most of the farmers that benefited from the tractors had no knowledge on how to keep the equipment running.
Speaking at the African Development Bank meeting in India, John Mahama said in order to correct such mistakes, his government instead created the Farmer Service Centres to provide tractor services to farmers.
“In the twilight of my administration in November 2016 I introduced the concept of Farmer Service Centres. And this was based on the experience I had that farmers do not need the tractors and the planters, what they need is the service of those equipment.
In the past, what we’ve done thinking we were modernizing and mechanizing agriculture and I think that was a shot in the dark, it was a mistake and I hope the new government learns from our mistake.”
He said “we found out that the farmers could not maintain the tractors. They don’t have knowledge on how to keep those tractors running and so in two or three years, brand new tractors we provided were all broken down and standing on stones.”
Mr. Mahama explained that the Farmer Service Centres were equipped with mechanized farm equipment and a farmer in need of such service was only to register with the centre and make a request.
“We need to introduce specialization and that’s why we came up with the Farmer Service Centres where the agricultural equipment’ –the planters, ploughs, harrows among others were placed and all the farmer needs to do is register and get the service. And the business of maintaining the equipment is completely that of the farmer centre.”
Mr. Mahama further admonished the current government to make use of the centres in order not to repeat some of the mistakes his administration made.
“And so that was the experience we learnt which we had started to implement. I hope the new government will continue with that project so that farmers will receive service as and when they need it,” he added.
Source: Citifmonline.com
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You are probably right calling out the person indicating the former Prez advice.......but, for goodness sake it's management or economics 101 to have a feasible plan before you embark on all governance/development assignments. Agric mechanization is as old as they come, and if you are unable o learn from it and actually still go ahead to talk about it, after your abysmal failure, wouldn't you wonder, what gives? With this type of advice, is it any wonder where Ghana is after the ex Prez time in charge. Mr current Prez, please ignore this without spending a minute of your precious time.
There is a Ga proverb that says that "by the time an 1diot becomes aware of his circumstances, all his strength will be gone". That is Mahama's situation today. Keep your advise because some of us knew that your tractor purchase was primarily meant to create, loot some more of state funds and share with your NDC people. Didn't you tell us that you are a dead g*at? Kindly remain dead because that state of yours is most refreshing to some of us. Use*less president!
massa just listen to yourself .The fact that u drive a car does not mean u can fix the car when it has a fault . The same way farmers would not be able to fix tractors.common sense should have told you to train some youths in maintenance of the tractors thereby creating jobs for them but i believe common sense is not that common
Mahama tractors were given to so called farmers who are NDC sympathisers who don't really need them. That was why they were abandoned.
Why won't Gh say his (Mahama's) advice is rubbish..??! Why didn't his government do a feasibility study to determine the important things to put in place before buying and distributing the tractors..???? Mahama is still incompetent as an ex-president...No real businessman will go for a loan with about 35-40% interest (PA) and go to build a car factory at where the people can only afford to buy bicycles. This is not rocket science but common sense. But because Mahama could dip his hands into the tax-payers money anyhow...he didn't think twice....
You call the advice of your former president rubbissssssh and you want us to take the advice of the current president abee. I pray you live long, if u are a young person I pray you live long. We speak any how all in the name of politics, no respect for the elderly. live long i pray you live long.
Rubbbish advice. We must educate our farmers about how to service the tractors. Remember most of the farmers are now educated. How different is tractor servicing different from servicing our cars? This former president of ours is truly showing his incompetence. Keep your advice to your chop chop NDC party. What happened to Ayariga tractors?