Why Farmers Are Still Disrespected in Ghana

Photo Credit: Lakov Filimonov/Shutterstock

When George Floyd was murdered by a group of police officers who were mostly white, it resulted in the worldwide condemnation of police brutality and racial profiling in the United States and rightly so. However, it would shock you to know that some of the most unreasonable forms of discrimination are committed by black people on their fellow blacks.

“Is it a crime to be a farmer? I went to look for a room to rent and the landlord said he can’t find me the room cos am a farmer. He wants government worker!!” – a disgruntled farmer.

You see, a Ghanaian is refusing to rent out his house to his fellow countryman not because the individual can’t afford the rent but rather, because of the person’s profession. Sounds absurd, right? Even though, I don’t have all the answers as to why people disrespect farmers in Ghana, I can make a few informed assumptions that I believe may be the cause.

Many Ghanaians associate living in rural areas with poverty, and opulence with major urban centres such as Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi. Since the main occupation of people living in rural areas typically hovers around agriculture, people assume that agriculture begets poverty.

Also, the attitude toward agriculture in this country is very appalling. I can bet with everything I have that at one point in time you were punished during your school days to weed the school farm or tend to some teacher’s backyard garden. This sort of punishment isn’t necessarily a bad idea because instead of caning someone, it may be more productive to have them take care of some crops or keep the school’s lawns attractive. However, when this form of punishment is abused, it may result in people living the rest of their lives believing that any form of agriculture is punishment instead of a noble source of income.

Finally, people view farming as a “dirty” job. The thought of spending long hours in the sun manually harvesting or clearing weeds isn’t particularly appealing to most people. However, what they fail to realize is that there are other modern methods of producing crops such as hydroponic farming which does not necessarily need to involve you spending hours in the sun. Again, agriculture isn’t just about crop production. Livestock production such as poultry farming, piggery and rabbitry is also a form of agriculture.

To conclude, I find it laughable that some people in Ghana look down on farmers and even go to the extent of refusing them accommodation. If people were smarter, they would hold farmers in high regard as they hold people like doctors because remember, he who controls your food source has immense power since without food there can be no survival.  Despite the disrespectful attitude shown towards agriculture by some, the company I serve as the CEO, Pkom Agribusiness Ltd, will always champion the cause of putting agriculture on a high pedestal through our posts on our website and social media accounts. God bless all Ghanaian farmers.