{"id":1120,"date":"2021-11-05T17:51:24","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T17:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/parliamentnews360.com\/?p=1120"},"modified":"2021-11-05T17:52:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T17:52:27","slug":"techiman-north-mp-advocates-for-guaranteed-pricing-regime-for-cashew-nuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parliamentnews360.com\/index.php\/techiman-north-mp-advocates-for-guaranteed-pricing-regime-for-cashew-nuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Techiman North MP Advocates for Guaranteed Pricing Regime for Cashew Nuts in Ghana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Member of Parliament for the Techiman North Constituency, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, has appealed to Government to ensure a guaranteed pricing regime for cashew farmers in the country, just as it has done for cocoa farmers.<\/strong>
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According to her, though the cashew industry in the country has seen tremendous expansion over the last ten years, however price volatility in the industry has been of a major concern to the rural cashew farmer, including farmers from her constituency.
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\u201cUnlike cocoa, there is no means by which a farmer will know at the beginning of the year, how much his or her cashew nuts will be sold. And so, it gets to a point where a kilo of cashew is sold at GHC1. So, what the farmers do is to leave the cashew on their farm lands to rot,\u201d she observed.
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The Techiman North MP, whose constituency produces about 54,405.45 metric tons of cashew per annum, made the appeal when she made a statement on the subject on the Floor of Parliament on Thursday, November 4, 2021.
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The Government was mandated to create a management board for tree crops including cashew nuts, and to also make them have their presence in all the regions of Ghana when the Tree Crop Regulatory Act, (Act 1010) was passed by Parliament in 2019. Even though the board is in place, their presence in the regions is nothing to write home about.
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Expressing concern about the ineffectiveness of the board in the regions, Mrs. Ofosu-Adjare bemoaned the fact that, \u201cthe issue of pricing is still a problem because till date, there is no general pricing or proper pricing of cashew in the country. So, there is always a fight between cashew farmers, cashew buyers, cashew exporters, and cashew processors.
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\u201cWe think the time has come for Government to be strong on pricing of cashew like it does for cocoa because they are all tree crops and they are all exportable products.\u201d
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Speaking in an interview with the media after her presentation on the Floor, the Member of Parliament urged the Government to attract the needed investment into the industry for value addition, in order to ensure cashew from Ghana is not exported in its raw state to increase the income of the cashew farmer.
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\u201cSo, we are calling on the Government to work on pricing; make the authority available in all the regions to regulate the activities of cashew farmers; as well as add value to cashew so that we don\u2019t just export raw cashew.
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\u201cAs a Member of Parliament for Techiman North, I have had the opportunity to visit a lot of farms and I know the industry and the kind of work that goes into cashew production. So, we want Government to work on that one and also ensure that it encourages farmers with subsidies, grants, and other incentives so that cashew production will go on in Ghana.
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\u201cAlso, the Export Promotion Council has stated that there is an untapped 600 million dollars in this sector alone. So, it is proper for Government to invest money in this sector so that we are better for it.\u201d
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Source: Clement Akoloh||parliamentnews360.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Member of Parliament for the Techiman North Constituency, Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, has appealed to Government to ensure a guaranteed pricing regime for cashew farmers in the country, just as it has done for cocoa farmers. According to her, though the cashew industry in the country has seen tremendous expansion over the last ten years, however […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[661,663,662,664],"class_list":{"0":"post-1120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-news","8":"tag-cashew-nuts","9":"tag-elizabeth-ofosu-adjare","10":"tag-techiman-north-mp","11":"tag-tree-crop-regulatory-act-act-1010"},"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n