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President Nana Akufo-Addo says his tenure, over the past three years and ten months, has enabled the creation of a vibrant agricultural sector in Ghana, with the country, over the period, transformed into a net exporter of food products, La Ghana’s agriculture has been transformed.
Speaking at the celebration of the 36th Day of the Peasant, which took place on Friday, November 6, 2020, in Techiman, capital of the Bono Este Region, the President noted that, in the immediate years before assuming office , the performance of the agricultural sector was nothing short of abysmal, as evidenced by growth rates of 0.9% in 2014 and 2.9% in 2016.
To remedy the situation, he told attendees that his Government had made the bold decision to embark on a well-thought-out program for the modernization and transformation of Ghana’s agriculture, which included increasing productivity on small farms; improve food security; diversify income from agricultural exports; promote agro-industrialization and import substitution; and job creation for young people.
“This led to the birth of the“ Sowing for Food and Employment ”(FSY) program in April 2017, which provided strategic direction to achieve the established objectives. The initial focus of the program was to support the productivity and production of selected food crops, by providing improved seeds and heavily subsidized fertilizers, ”said President Akufo-Addo.
He continued: “Since then, FSY has evolved, over the years, to reflect the comprehensive nature of the government’s strategy to improve agriculture with the introduction of five modules, namely, food crops, planting for export and rural development (tree crops module), Food raising and employment (livestock module), greenhouse villages (horticulture module) and agricultural mechanization and agricultural processing (mechanization module) “
All five modules, the president explained, have contributed to the creation of the vibrant agriculture that we are experiencing in Ghana, although some of the modules have yet to be fully implemented.
“Today our nation has banished the shameful specter of importing tomatoes and bananas from Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire respectively, we are now a net food exporter and our youth are venturing into agriculture full time,” he added.
Food crops module
According to President Akufo-Addo, the food crops module has resulted in a noticeable increase in the yields of selected staple foods, with those of corn and rice, for example, increasing by 110% and 48% respectively from 2016 to 2016. 2019, while local rice production represents 50% of domestic demand, compared to 32% in 2017.
All of this, the president emphasized, has been possible thanks to the substantial increase in the distribution of improved seeds to farmers, from 4,400 metric tons in 2016 to 18,333 metric tons in 2019 and 29,000 metric tons in 2020.
With Ghana making considerable progress in its efforts to increase fertilizer use, from 8 kg per hectare in 2016 to 20 kg per hectare by the end of 2019, it indicated that the Government has hired 2,700 extension workers since 2017, translating into a improved extension. Proportion of civil servants per farmer, from 1: 1,908 in 2016 to 1: 706
Another important intervention within the framework of the food crops module, according to President Akufo-Addo, has been the construction of 80 warehouses with a capacity of 1,000 metric tons throughout the country.
Tree crops module
Mentioning FSY’s tree crops module, popularly known as “Plantation for Export and Rural Development” (PERD), which he launched in April 2019, President Akufo-Addo stated that the Government has made the decision to develop cashew nuts , coffee and shea. , mango, coconut, rubber and oil palm in commercial crops, in addition to cocoa.
“The goal for each of these selected crops is to earn a minimum of $ 2 billion each year beginning in 2028. This goal translates to a total of about $ 14 billion annually, compared to $ 2.3 billion for the cocoa today, “he added.
This additional focus, he emphasized, “does not mean turning away from the crop that has been the mainstay of Ghana’s economy for over a hundred years: cocoa,” evidenced in the establishment of the $ 600 million National Cocoa Rehabilitation Program, and increase the producer price for a bag of cocoa from GH ¢ 415 to GH ¢ 660, the highest in the history of the country.
Livestock module
In explaining the justification for the establishment of this module, President Akufo-Addo indicated that the purpose of the module is to increase local production of poultry and livestock, as well as to reduce the country’s dependence on meat imports, valued annually at US $ 340. millions. .
“Starting in 2019, with the distribution of improved breeds of small ruminants, pigs and roosters to farmers throughout the country, the Government is currently facilitating access to concessional loans for value chain actors to support the production, processing and marketing of meat products. On a large scale, it is projected to progressively reduce the importation of meat products in the country by up to 70% by 2025 ”, he said.
Green villages
Government, said President Akufo-Addo, is promoting the greenhouse village concept to ensure the production of high value vegetables for local consumption and enhance the competitiveness of Ghanaian horticultural products in the international market.
“So far, I have commissioned three (3) greenhouse villages in Dawhenya in the Greater Accra region, Akumadan in the Ashanti region and Bawjiase in the central region. Two hundred ninety-six (296) university graduates and graduates have been trained, of which one hundred and ninety (190) have benefited from a paid internship of eleven (11) months in the Kibbutzim of Israel ”, he added.
Mechanization
To move away from the dependence on labor that small farmers have become accustomed to, President Akufo-Addo stated that the Government, through the More Food Program, has supplied 230 tractors and 11,450 assorted machinery and equipment from Brazil, since 2017.
In addition, concession agreements have been concluded with India and the Czech Republic for the supply of a large consignment of agricultural and processing machinery, including hand-held agricultural implements, to be sold at a subsidized price.
“Starting in 2021, the Exim Bank of India will facilitate the supply of agricultural machinery, agricultural processing and other value-added machines to the tune of one hundred fifty million US dollars (US $ 150 million),” he said.
President, let me also give an account of some of the other interventions put in place by the Government to boost the development of agriculture.
Irrigation
With Ghana, since independence, only 3.2% of its arable land under irrigation, President Akufo-Addo told the meeting that “since 2017, the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) has completed 10 of 14 small dams “.
In addition, he added that the rehabilitation of the irrigation schemes of the left and right banks of Kpong and the irrigation scheme of Tono is underway and, once completed, 7,690 hectares of land will be irrigated.
“The government has also started construction of the Pwalugu multipurpose dam, which will put an additional 24,000 hectares of land under irrigation. In addition, the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives has built some 500 small dams in the Northern Regions of Ghana, ”he added.
Food exports
A clear indicator attesting to the overwhelming success of the FSY food crop module, according to President Akufo-Addo, is the export of food products from Ghana to neighboring countries.
“According to official records from the Directorate of Information and Statistical Research of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Ghana exported some 130,000 metric tons of 19 different foods to neighboring countries in 2018, valued at the equivalent of $ 90 million. The reports of dozens of traders from neighboring countries of the ECOWAS region doing dynamic business in cereals in the north of the country are clear indications of the new commercial opportunities that are opening up in the country for agriculture, ”he said.
