Prioritize agric sector to help achieve GDP growth target for 2022 – Economist to government

Government introduces One-District-One-Factory initiative

Overall GDP growth target for 2022 is 5.8%

More investment needed in agriculture sector – Economist

Government has been urged to prioritize the agriculture sector to help achieve the country’s overall real GDP growth target of 5.8 percent.

Economist, Dr. Patrick Asuming, believes the sector is critical to helping the government meet its growth rate targets set out for the 2022 fiscal year.

Speaking in an interview with Citi Business News, the economist said, “If the challenges that we faced last year with regard to food production are not addressed, then there’ll be a problem. We still have issues with the fertilizer shortage which doesn’t look like it’s going to be solved soon,” he noted.

He added that although there has been some investments made to improve the agriculture sector, it is still largely dependent on some external elements to survive.

“In spite of all the investments we’ve made in the sector, our agriculture is still heavily dependent on the weather. So, if the rain patterns differ from expectations again, that could also be another source of trouble. Food inflation has been racing in the last few months. If these are not addressed, it’ll be a potential negative factor for the growth rate of 2022," Dr. Asuming explained.

Meanwhile, Ghana has in the past four years, despite investments in the agriculture sector, recorded an inconsistent rate of real GDP growth.