Dr Hayford Ayerakwa is a development economist

Development Economist Dr Hayford Ayerakwa has called on the government to prioritize the establishment of infrastructure that supports both smallholder and commercial farmers through strategic integration.

According to him, there is the need for the government to properly connect commercial farmers with smallholders to optimise land use and resource allocation as it intends to fully roll out its flagship 24-hour economy programme.

In an interview with GhanaWeb Business on Thursday, July 3, 2025, Dr Ayerakwa proposed a model where commercial farmers can lease parts of their lands to create farming enclaves particularly along the Volta corridor lane.

He said this would facilitate efficient provision of services such as irrigation and other agro-based services for the agricultural sector.

"If you are a commercial farmer and there are 15, 20, 15 smallholder farmers who can plug into your farm in and around the same place, then it becomes very easy to provide other essential support services to these smallholder farms without necessarily hiring too many people to go around their individual farms because they are all located within an enclave and that is something government should be looking at," he explained.

He pointed out the economic benefits of this integrated approach, especially in the use of modern technologies like drones, for fertilizer application which could significantly reduce operational costs.

"Extension services can become cheaper. But even fertiliser applications where we have to use drones to apply fertiliser and auxiliary services, it becomes cheaper to do stuff like that instead of trying to work with individual units," he added.

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