Friday,
Aug. 1, 2014
Folks, how many of you know what
Punjab is or where it is located in the world? What will come to your mind when
“Punjab” or “Punjabi” is mentioned? I don’t know, but I am more than angry at news
reports about what the Ghanaian government wants to do to bring Punjab on board.
For the records,
the term “Punjab” comprises two words: “punj”, meaning “five”, and “ab”, meaning “water”;
thus, “the land of five rivers.” Punjab is the only state in India with a
majority Sikh population.
You may wonder why I should be
bothering you with the name “Punjab”. A very simple response. I have been
scouting around to find something interesting to comment on as part of my
yeoman’s job to feed public discourse on our country’s development challenges.
It didn’t take me long to stumble upon this news report carried by the Hindustan
Times Chandigarh
news medium on July 31, 2014, that Ghana will offer (or has offered) lands to
Punjabi farmers. I immediately got scared by the report.
Read
it here for yourselves: http://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/chandigarh/ghana-offers-land-to-punjabi-farmers/article1-1246835.aspx
Here
are the most troubling aspects of the report:
·
“Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal
on Thursday acceded to a proposal by a delegation from Ghana led by deputy minister
for energy and petroleum Benjamin Dagadu to settle progressive farmers in Ghana
and assured that a high level delegation from Punjab would visit the African
country soon to lay the groundwork for this settlement scheme”.
The
Deputy Chief Minister’s statement followed interactions with a visiting
Ghanaian delegation to Punjab, led by the Deputy Minister of Energy, Dagadu.
·
“The
visiting minister from Ghana, who called on the deputy chief minister at
his residence on Wednesday night, said Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama
wanted to promote agriculture as a tool of progress and that Ghana would
welcome Punjabi expertise in this regard. He said the government of Ghana
was also ready to allocate fertile agriculture land on long lease to Punjabi
farmers.”
·
“He
said Punjab could export finished goods to Ghana and that Punjabi
entrepreneurs were also welcome to start manufacturing facilities in
Ghana to take advantage of its natural resources, including various minerals,
oil, cocoa, palm oil, timber, fish and cotton.
·
Dagadu
also proposed that the biscuit industry in Punjab could be exempted from
all custom duties at the point of entry in Ghana.
·
Leading
Sikh businessman from Ghana, Amardeep Singh Hari, who accompanied the Ghanaian
delegation, said Ghana would welcome help from Punjab to establish
educational institutions, including engineering colleges, there.
Even before the government comes
out to comment on this news report, I will be quick to condemn Mr. Dagadu for
making the offer of lands to the Punjabi farmers as if Ghana doesn’t have
farmers to do the job of providing cash crops and food crops for consumption in
the country and for export.
Don’t get me wrong; there is
nothing wrong with Ghana’s desire to collaborate with Punjab for mutual
benefits; but the route chosen for this cooperation is wrong. I recognize
Punjab’s massive accomplishments and wonder why Ghana can’t do same but want to
physically transplant Punjabi farmers on Ghanaian soil before getting them to
produce what will help Ghana solve its problems.
Clearly, agriculture is
the largest industry in Punjab; it is the largest single producer of wheat in
India. Other
major industries include the manufacturing of scientific instruments,
agricultural goods, electrical goods, financial services, machine
tools, textiles, sewing
machines, sports
goods, starch, tourism, fertilisers, bicycles, garments,
and the processing of pine
oil and sugar.
Punjab also has the largest number of steel rolling mill
plants in India, which are located in Steel Town Mandi
Gobindgarh, District Fatehgarh
Sahib (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punjab,_India).
So what is the attraction for
Ghana? According to the news report, agriculture (giving Ghanaian lands to
Punjabi farmers so they can produce crops in Ghana). Aaabaaaa!!!
The painful truth is that Ghana
abounds in hardworking and forward-looking farmers who have all these years
shouldered the responsibility of producing cash crops for export earnings to
boost the national coffers and food crops to feed Ghanaians. They have done all
in their power to remain productive despite harsh conditions caused by total
neglect by the government, which has forced them to rely on the hoe-and-cutlass
method instead of mechanized farming or the slash-and-burn method that promotes
shifting cultivation and deforestation. Environmental degradation results, even
as food crop production suffers and the government itself encourages the
importation of food items such as rice, yam, plantains, fish and many others
(including chicken “spare parts”). It is a disgrace.
The government’s policy on
agriculture is impotent, which is why there seems to be problems in the
agricultural sector. It is not because Ghana lacks farmers or arable land. It
is because the government (and its predecessors) has failed to support the
agricultural sector. What, then, will be the significance of the annual “Farmers
Day” celebrations? To turn round to offer lands in Ghana to Punjabi farmers
caps it all that the government is becoming misguided all the more.
Many issues arise from this
particular land offer alone (and we are even not considering the other issues
raised during that “Wednesday night’s interaction between Dagadu and the
Punjabi politicians):
Where is the land that the
government has earmarked for release to farmers from Punjab? How will any
agreement on the land-grant (lease) be initiated and concluded to ensure that
the beneficiaries are indeed being legally integrated into the Ghanaian system
as tenant farmers or owners of land in Ghana? What exactly will be the
framework for any transaction of this sort to ensure that the laws of Ghana are
not fouled by the government itself, let alone the Punjabi farmers? Why come to
Ghana and nowhere else?
What will the Punjabi farmers be
producing in Ghana that the local Ghanaian farmers cannot? Is it rice, millet,
sorghum, soya beans, maize, or what? Cotton? Alfalfa? Aloevera? What at all is
it that the Punjabi farmers can do that our Ghanaian farmers cannot? And is it
bringing in these Punjabi farmers that will motivate our local farmers to enter
into competitive farming?
Who bears the cost of bringing in
and equipping these Punjabi farmers? Is it really necessary to bring in these
foreigners?
In a country where the activities
of foreigners (be they the Chinese undesirables or the Fulani cattle breeders,
the Lebanese and Syrian business hacks, the Indian and Malaysian entrepreneurs)
have come to notice as not adjusting properly into our system, bringing in
others to possess land is more than troubling.
Ghana has clear laws on land
ownership and a land tenure system that the government’s intended move won’t
fit into. Which traditional area in Ghana is the government eyeing for this
deal? We know that there are state lands; but is that what the government can
do with those lands to create the impression that it is collaborating with
farmers from outside to sustain the agricultural sector?
What has the government earmarked
for the farmers of Ghana producing cocoa, coffee, food crops, and many others
in commercial quantities? The problem in Ghana is not about over-abundance of
farmland but the government’s own shortsightedness in not knowing how to help
farmers (fishermen too) use the fertile lands for increased food production.
We have the Accra and Afram
Plains to talk about, not forgetting the entire northern parts of Ghana that
have often been described as the “bread basket” of Ghana but neglected to the
farmers’ chagrin and consumers’ woe.
What is the government capable of
doing at this stage? It’s not offering lands to Punjabi farmers that will
address the imbalance in the agricultural sector. The government has to re-think
whatever it may have up its sleeves that Dagadu has blurted out to annoy us. We
need help from outside, not this kind of help. Let’s pay attention to our own
farmers first; then, we can link them up with places and people who can help
boost their efforts. We shouldn’t do things to dislodge them and bring in foreigners
who will not take long to face the very ills that the government’s negative
attitude to the agricultural sector causes.
Is this government not on a wild
goose chase in this dealing with the Punjabi Establishment? I think so.
No official statement has come
from the government in reaction to this publication, which is why I have put it
out here to draw attention to it so someone can come out to clear the air.
Don't blame me for rushing to post it without waiting for official comments.
Sometimes, such official comments need to be provoked, which is what I have
used this post to do. Anybody out there to clear the air or confirm the
publication?
I shall return…
·
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
- Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor to continue the conversation.
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