The Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto has begun touring northern Ghana as part of efforts to help increase food production in the country.
The visit, which is the last leg of the minister’s regional working tour embarked upon early this year, is taking him to Upper West, Upper East, North East, Savannah and Northern regions.
It followed the celebration of the Farmers Day celebration held in the Eastern Regional capital, Koforidua last Friday.
Accompanying the minister on his tour are national directors of the MoFA.
Addressing a staff durbar and stakeholders at the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council in Wa on Monday, Dr. Afriyie-Akoto stated that he had already been to 11 regions, adding that “I am in the northern part of the country now to check agriculture matters; it is going to take about a week.
“I make it a point to visit each region in the country every year with all my directors to see how policies made in Accra have impacted on farmers outside Accra. From the Upper West, we will move to the Upper East to carry out same task over there,” he explained.
On the issue of shortage of inorganic fertilisers, he reiterated that it was a global issue, hence entreated farmers in the region to adopt organic fertilisers.
Dr. Afriyie-Akoto explained that the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) Market is an intervention by the government to help bring down the soaring prices of foodstuffs on the markets.
“Prices of foodstuffs in the urban centres are ridiculous. We’re in the middle of harvest and prices of foodstuffs are expected to be reduced but it’s not so! We had to intervene, and honestly the PFJ Market [initiative] is doing well. We want to cut down prices of foodstuffs,” he averred.
From the regional coordinating council, the minister and his entourage visited farm fields including Abu Dassan Ventures, agro processing experts, who deal in groundnut paste, Tombrown, ‘banku’ mix, ginger powder among others.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the minister’s visit, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Abu Dassan Ventures, Mumuni Dassah Issah, lamented that his outfit’s products only reach a few parts of the country.
“Bono East is where our sales are most generated. We are looking forward to ensure that our products get to every corner of the country,” he stated.
According to him, his company has advanced measures to collaborate with the MoFA “so that some of our products will be given space on the PFJ Market.”
“Our major challenges are lack of personnel, funding and infrastructure. We are appealing to the authorities to assist us with loan facilities at considerable interest rates to help us expand production and bring on board new projects,” he appealed.
Earlier, the Regional Director of Agriculture in Upper West, Emmanuel Sasu Yeboah, gave a presentation on the state of agriculture in the region.
He underscored that agriculture is the main source of livelihood for inhabitants of Upper West, revealing that the sector employs about 80% of the rural dwellers in the region.
“The farmers mostly produce staple food crops such as maize, rice sorghum wheat, millet, cowpea, groundnut, yam etc…,” he noted.
However, he added that shea butter, ‘dawadawa,’ mango, cashew and cotton remain major economic crops grown in Upper West, and also livestock farming.
Mr. Sasu Yeboah indicated that both the PFJ and the RFJ were boosting farm yields in the region compared to previous years.
“Availability of the soya bean thresher has boosted soya been production and I can say Upper West Region can produce soya for export,” he optimistically expressed.
