FROM THE above quotation it is clear that right from the time our colonial masters appreciated the agricultural potential of our beloved country they started planning to exploit it by diverting the minds of the natives, as they made them stop producing their own crops (plantain, cocoyam) to feed themselves to producing newly introduced plants of economic importance to colonial masters.
As expected by our colonial masters, the natives trained in the scientific methods of producing cocoa became interested in its production because of the availability of a ready market for their produce.
The initiative of Tetteh Quashie indeed accelerated cocoa production in our country in the interest of our colonial masters. However, our masters realized that all the natives they trained in cocoa agronomy were not willing to work for the colonial masters but rather went into their own cocoa farming. To attract the trained cocoa technicians to work for the colonial masters the salaries of technicians working in the cocoa sector were increased and the effect of the salary increase was reported in 1911 agricultural report as follows:
“When educated natives in the past turned their attention more in the direction of clerical work as that seems to have been more to their taste, but there is now growing tendency on the part of the educated men to take up farming and the horticultural department is now looked on as a good medium for those who wish to become more acquainted with agricultural development of their country. The higher paid appointments in the Department had salaries attached per annum which is also an inducement to draw good men.”
Dear Reader, can you imagine where Ghana would have been by now if the educated had taken to farming since the establishment of Aburi Botanical Garden instead of being employed to work as expected of every educated Ghanaian? Having lectured in the University for 42 years, if I had been in farming under the conditions which prevailed for cocoa farmers 100 years ago, my retirement life would have been far better than I am experiencing now as a university lecturer on pension!!
But as the educated natives taking to farming was not in the interest of our colonial masters our would – have – been – ancestral farmers were lured with good salaries to serve our colonial masters instead of farming as it had continued to date. The educated Ghanaian expects the government to employ them instead of going into farming or any other business. Hence, the prevailing unemployment situation in the country now. But farming under conducive condition can mop up our current unemployment situation.
Our colonial masters pursuing their agenda to produce more economic plants for their cosmopolitan lifestyle after establishing the Aburi Botanical Garden, developed Bunso, Asuansi and Aiyinasi Agriculture stations for the introduction of export crops beyond Aburi, but not for the development of our native food crops.
In 1922, Cadbury Hall was established in Kumasi for the further extension of Cocoa production not our native crops. In 1938, as a result of the outbreak of the Cocoa swollen disease the West Africa Cocoa Research Institute (WACRI), now Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) was established to find solutions to cocoa problems as if our local crops had no disease problems!!
Another crop which was developed in the interest of the colonial masters was oil palm. It is interesting to note that our colonial masters took the trouble to organise the marketing for cocoa. The cocoa farmer was just to produce the raw cocoa to be exported and processed in the country of our colonial masters. However, in the case of oil palm, farmers were taught how to process the palm fruit for oil and the oil exported. How wise! Even with the establishment of WACRI (CRIG) the emphasis was placed on the Agronomy, Physiology, Breeding and Protection of the cocoa plants but not on cocoa processing until quite recently.
Even though crops such as oranges, coconut and mangoes were planted at various agricultural stations they were not much of interest to our masters like cocoa and palm oil. Can you imagine where Ghana would be have been by now if these were developed in order of cocoa or oil palm?
Not only in the field was the emphasis in our agriculture laid on mainly cocoa but also in agricultural literature too!! The major book on agriculture, which is more or less on “our agricultural bible, entitled “Agriculture and Land use in Ghana” is mainly on cocoa with a very small sections on other crops. Since our independence because of the solid infrastructure laid by our colonial masters for the developing and sustaining the cocoa and oil palm not much attempt has been made to develop some of our staple crops such as plantain, cocoyam, yam, millet, and sorghum to the level of cocoa and oil palm. Hence our dependency on cocoa as our major export crop for foreign exchange.
As regards the animal industry not much attempt was made to improve our livestock and poultry, apart from establishing the veterinary service to control animal diseases and Medical Field Unit (MFU) to monitor and control the population of Tsetse fly. We were made to believe that tsetsefly was a major factor making the livestock industry uneconomical to develop.
Agricultural Development Post-Independence Era
The establishment of University of Ghana in 1948 did not bring much changes in the direction of the development of agriculture. Our agricultural intellectuals seeking international recognition have been working on foreign crops such as winged bean, soya bean, cabbage, cauliflower and sunflower and foreign techniques such as the use of biochar for soil moisture retention.
For my M.Sc. in Crop Science, I decided to work on Bambara beans. But a lecturer of mine tried to convince me to work on soya bean so he could get me foreign scholarship to study abroad. We were not in agreement and so I chose to worked on Bambara beans for my second degree. Since 1975, I wonder how many post-graduate students have worked on Bambara Beans to continue with the work done by Prof Doku (University of Ghana) who had done an extensive work on Bambara, yam and cassava? However, cassava which had some foreign funding has of late been worked on extensively by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Yam and Bambara are virtually at the stage Prof Doku left them. Yam has to some extent benefited from the application of rapid multiplication techniques developed for the production of seed yam for farmers. Bambara beans a very delicious and filling food is virtually dying out!! Because it does not appeal to developing partners.
Prof Karikari (University of Ghana) initiated work on plantain and cocoyam. Who has continued from where he ended? Plantain development and production is still not formal and still directed by the Ghanaian farmer. As for cocoyam, a food security crop, is virtually disappearing. I am from Kwabre in Ashanti where the first weed to appear after the forest has been cleared for farming cocoyam which foreign donors are not interested in its development.
Prof Clerk (University of Ghana) was studying diseases of crops other than cocoa. He wrote a book on how far he had studied our crop diseases: entitled “Diseases of crops other than cocoa”. Who will continue with his work? Dr Olympio (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and technology) and his team were working on producing parentals for the poultry industry. Who is continuing with that beautiful work they started? We are still bringing in parentals to sustain our poultry industry. Definitely with locally developed parentals to suit the Ghanaian situation our poultry farmers would not have to spend so much on imported drugs.
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BY Dr Yaw Opoku Asiama, Eyifua-Cape Coast