Ghana's Coop d'etat
13 April
By Louise Orton, Christian Aid
Hundreds of poultry, rice and cotton farmers from all parts of Ghana
marched through the capital, Accra, demanding fairer trade rules yesterday.
Among the crowd was poultry farmer, Lawrence Agorsor. ON leaving the National Parliament of Ghana he declared:
"Ghanaian farmers have been too quiet for too long. But not anymore."
"The whole industry is on the brink of collapse. That’s why I am here protesting for the Global Week of Action."
The procession was accompanied by drumming, dancing and singing but the
atmosphere was charged and serious. Together the farmers chanted:
'Yeni abre koo' & 'Our eyes are red. We mean business'.
Mr Agorsor has stopped selling chickens for the meat because he is unable to cope with cheap imports from Europe. Half of his coops lie empty as 36,000 tonnes of subsidised frozen chicken pieces, mainly from Belgium and Holland, flood the Ghanaian market.
"The chicken is of poor quality"
Said Mr Agorsor.
"But it is cheap and people are don't care about the quality."
"We don't want this event to be just another talking shop. There is too much frustration."
When he and a small delegation were allowed into the parliament, he spoke with passion.
"Our colleagues in Europe are protected from high costs of production. But here the price of maize (chicken food) is going up all the time. This government needs to revamp the poultry sector. Farmers need training and technical advice and better access to credit. And our markets should not be wide open"
Ibrahim Akalbila of ISODEC said the most exciting thing about the event was that it was a farmers' march.
"Given the swell of feeling in this country at the moment I really do believe that we can start to change the rules in favour of the poor farmers here."
For more information and images of this event vist the Pressureworks website.
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