President John Dramani Mahama has stated that the government’s proposed investment under the New Economy programme will place agriculture and agro-processing at the centre of its development plans.
He said this while speaking during a citizens’ engagement in Navrongo on Friday, August 14.
“The New Economy is selecting seven sectors of the Ghanaian economy. And every year we’re going to, for the next four years, we’re going to invest $2.5 billion in those seven pillars,” he said.
“But the biggest is agriculture and agro-processing. And that’s where the Upper East comes in. Agriculture and agro-processing are going to take 50% of that $10 billion investment. So $5 billion is going to go into agriculture and agro-processing.”
President Mahama further said the Upper East Region would receive a share of the planned $5 billion investment, which would include the expansion of irrigation infrastructure to enable farmers to produce throughout the year.
“And I can assure you the Upper East region is going to get its fair share of that $5 billion. So that will cover creating more irrigation facilities so that our young people, even in the rainy season or the dry season, would have the opportunity to be able to produce,” he said.
“The minister told you that Upper East can produce all the vegetables and everything that we eat in this country. And we’re not even waiting for that program to start. We’ve started. We have the tomato revitalisation project that is taking place here,” President Mahama said.
According to him, about 2,500 acres of land could be brought under tomato cultivation, with the Pwalugu tomato factory serving as the main processing facility.
“We can bring in 2,500 acres of land under tomato production. And the Pwalugu tomato factory is going to be the epicentre of it. We’re going to rehabilitate the Pwalugu tomato factory so that we can process the tomatoes that Upper East is producing to feed the rest of the country,” he said.
