Government of Ghana expects to launch a major program this year to boost the production of cash crops and create jobs in the agriculture sector, Deputy Local Government Minister Augustine Collins Ntim told Xinhua here on Monday.
The ‘Planting for Jobs and Investments’ program, according to him, would be launched by President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo before the end of this year to develop a number of cash crops to the level akin to cocoa.
“The Planting for Jobs and Investments takes on board the cash-crops. In the NPP (New Patriotic Party) manifesto, we said we were going to develop six major cash crops to the level akin to cocoa; and these are cashew, mango, oil palm, shea, citrus and coconut. We are going to develop these through the decentralized system,” he explained.
This initiative, according to the minister, who granted the interview on the side of the World Food Day commemoration by the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), will help diversify Ghana’s export base while creating jobs and strengthening the country’s economy and export competitiveness.
The project is expected to be run through a collaboration among the Ministries of Local Government & Rural Development; Food and Agriculture; Environment, Science and Technology Innovation, as well as Trade and Industry, with the One District and One Factory Secretariat providing support.
Each of the 216 local government assemblies, Ntim indicated, is going to raise seedlings that will support between 10,000 and 20,000 farmers to cultivate an average of 10 acres within the next four years and five years.
To make the project effective, he said the assemblies would be requested to engage youth who would also be trained in simple basic agronomic practices to enable them to support farmers in planting any quantum of seedlings raised to ensure that all seedlings raised get to the farmers and get planted.
Ntim explained that the local government ministry had been tasked to coordinate the implementation of these agriculture based programs because development happened at the district level.
“Assemblies are responsible for overall development: physical development and economic empowerment. We have sensitized them no longer to concentrate on physical development such as building toilets, roads, and other structures alone. They should also come up with economic development, which includes this initiative,” he added.
This will bring to three the number of direct agriculture-based initiatives being introduced by the government this year. The earlier ones are the Planting for Food and Jobs and the One District-One Warehouse.
Although the Ministry of Food and Agriculture as well as the local government ministry are putting in some initial financing for this program, Ntim told Xinhua that the German development agency, GIZ (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) had expressed interest in supporting it while part of the 135 million dollars Canadian support for agriculture modernization would be going into pushing through the program.
Ntim is the first ever Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Local Government in the history of Ghana to have been put in charge of rural development and agriculture.
Meanwhile, the government has also set out to establish District Center for Agriculture, Commerce and Technology (DCACT) in all 216 local government assemblies to ensure proper and effective implementation of the agriculture programs.
“It is going to be a one-stop center that will serve as an interface between the private sector and the implementation authorities and also align all the government’s agricultural initiatives; commercial, business, entrepreneurial and all that. All the donor initiatives in agriculture will be in the custody of this center,” the deputy minister disclosed. Enditem
Source: Xinhua/NewsGhana.com.gh
