Musah Superior writes;
BROKEN PROMISES: PART 6.
FARMERS SERVICE CENTRES: MAHAMA’S PROMISE AT RISK OF BECOMING ANOTHER MIRAGE.
When the National Democratic Congress (NDC) launched its 2024 manifesto, “Resetting Ghana: Jobs, Accountability, and Prosperity,” it carried a valiant promise to Ghana’s farmers: “Establish farmer service centres to support farmers with modern agricultural equipment, technologies and inputs in all districts.”
Candidate John Mahama and his running mate, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang repeated this promise across campaign platforms. Mahama told farmers in Bawku in August 2024 that the centres would be “one-stop shops for farmers, providing inputs on credit, to be repaid after harvest.” In Ejura, just days before the election, he went further: promising 15 tractors per district under these centres, where farmers would register and access machinery at modest fees. Prof. Jane Naana reinforced the vision in Walewale, assuring Ghanaians that every district would get a centre equipped with modern machinery.
These weren’t offhand remarks. They were consistent campaign talking points that built hope in the hinterlands where agriculture is both livelihood and survival.
Fast-forward nine months into the Mahama administration. What do we see?
At the National Agribusiness Dialogue on July 28, 2025, President Mahama announced the government had “unveiled” 11 Farmer Service Centres as part of a pilot of 50 to be rolled out this year. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has echoed the pledge, promising the centres would eventually cover all 261 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
But here’s the rub: while we keep hearing about the 11 centres, not a single authoritative list of their locations exists. From Aflao in the south to Paga in the north, farmers are still asking: where exactly are these centres? The government has not provided evidence of tractors stationed, centres functioning, or farmers actively accessing the services promised.
Let’s put this in perspective.
Ghana has 261 MMDAs.
The manifesto promised centres in every district — that’s 261.
Campaign statements inflated expectations with talk of 15 tractors per district. That means nearly 3,915 tractors nationwide, plus farm machinery, workshops, and inputs.
Yet, nine months in, only 11 “unveiled” centres are on paper — with no traceable addresses, no farmer testimonies, and no functioning one-stop shops.
Even the government’s own interim target — 50 centres in 2025 — looks shaky. If nine months in, we cannot verify 11, how realistic is it that 50 will be operational by December? And if 50 is slipping, what then of the grand promise of 261 centres?
The danger here is simple: the Farmer Service Centre programme, once marketed as a transformative pillar of the Feed Ghana agenda, risks becoming another phantom policy — long on rhetoric, thin on delivery.
For Ghanaian farmers who staked their hopes on the NDC’s ambitious promises, the disappointment would be bitter. Campaign promises should not just be vote-winning slogans. They should be measurable, transparent, and verifiable commitments.
Until the Mahama government publishes the list of the 11 centres, proves they are operational, and shows clear timelines for scaling to 50 this year and ultimately to 261 nationwide, the Farmer Service Centre pledge remains unfulfilled. Worse still, it risks joining the long list of well-packaged but poorly delivered campaign promises that have kept Ghanaians trapped in cycles of hope and betrayal by the NDC.
Ghanaian farmers deserve better than invisible tractors and ghost centres.
