The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong has announced his outfit’s plans to embark on an aggressive food programme from June 2023 that will result in food security and its availability for the next five years.
According to Mr. Acheampong, the 5-year-plan is entirely different from the Planting for Food and Jobs and is currently in Parliament for approval.
“This year, from June [2023], government is going to rollout an aggressive programme that will ensure food security and availability for the next five years.“
“The plan, which is going to move away from the current subsidy programme that we have, if cabinet approves of it, will introduce an input credit system, thereby lowering the entry barrier into agriculture to allow for more people to get into agriculture and also to allow for the farmers to get the fertilisers that they want at subsidised prices,” he emphasized.
The Minister made the disclosure at the launch of Export Trading Group (ETG) Agri-inputs under the theme “Enhancing Agriculture Value Chains and Food Systems in Africa.”
Meanwhile, the African Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership in collaboration with ETG Agri-Inputs under the Sustain Africa Initiative initiated an emergency response and resilience project to mitigate food insecurity in Ghana.
In this regard, the Country Director of ETG Agri-inputs, Fred Akowuah, pledged 15,000 metric tonnes of subsidised fertilisers under the initiative with the hope to revolutionise Ghana’s agric sector.
“We believe in the goal set by Sustain Africa to enhance agriculture value chains on the continent. Through this initiative, ETG is making a resolute commitment and pledging to provide over 15,000 metric tonnes of discounted sulphate of ammonia and NPK fertilisers.”
“These fertilisers will be directed to the bread basket regions of Ghana supporting our hardworking smallholder farmers who form the backbone of our agricultural sector,” he disclosed.
Sustain Africa’s Regional Manager for West and Central Africa, Nana Aisha Mohammed also disclosed that the project is targeting 150,000 farmers as beneficiaries.
“For Ghana’s programme, we hope to target at least 150,000 smallholder farmers across the country with a special focus on women and youth. We will be focusing on cereals and vegetables in the bread basket regions. The strong part of this partnership is the knowledge transfer component which is going to be strongly implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture,” she stated.
Source: myjoyonline
