The Minister of Food and Agriculture-designate, Eric Opoku, has announced plans to roll out a programme that would lead Ghana to food sufficiency.
According to him, the programme will ultimately lead to agricultural productivity.
“We want to roll out a programme we call Feed Ghana. Under the Feed Ghana programme, we want to drive this nation towards food efficiency,” he said on January 20 during his vetting by Parliament’s Appointments Committee.
He was answering questions posed by the immediate past sector minister, Bryan Acheampong.
There have been concerns by stakeholders in the agric sector over food sufficiency in the country, given that many food items such as tomato and rice are imported in large quantities.
Mr Opoku added that “we have also provided for another programme called feed the industry. Under the feed the industry programme, we want to establish a strong relationship between agriculture and industry. A symbiotic relationship in nature, so that as agriculture provides the raw materials, industry will be adding value. And in so doing, we will create a lot of jobs and increase productivity.”
Touching on challenges with access to credit by farmers, he bemoaned the fact that financial institutions shy away from funding farming ventures. He disclosed plans to stem this tide.
“In 1965, Dr Kwame Nkrumah established what we now call the Agricultural Development Bank to provide credit facilities for the development and modernisation of agriculture. Unfortunately, because our agriculture is rain-fed, the banks are unwilling to discharge this special mandate. That is why our farmers are suffering from lack of credit. The NDC intends to introduce a new programme called Ghana Agricultural Insurance Scheme (GAIS),” he revealed.
He explained that “Under this programme, we want to subsidise agricultural insurance so that farmers can have insurance on their farms. Once you have the insurance, the banks are ready to advance loans to you knowing very well that no matter the amount they give to you, once it falls within the limit of the insurance, it can be paid.
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