4 days ago
56 ARTICLE AD
The Minister of Food and Agriculture-designate, Eric Opoku, has hinted the governments to establish an agriculture insurance scheme for farmers in the country.
He said under the subsidised insurance programme, the farmers would be supported to insure their farms against any eventuality and could also use the insurance to seek financial assistance from the banks.
“Once you have the insurance, the banks would be ready to advance loans to them knowing very well that whatever amount they request would be granted so long as it falls within the limits of the insurance it can be paid,” he stated.
Mr Opoku indicated that in effort to move the country towards food sufficiency, the feed Ghana programme would be rolled out to encourage backyard farming while the feed industry agriculture provides the raw materials for industry to add value and generate jobs, as well as increase productivity in order to address problems confronting agriculture in the country.
A similar programme to that of the ‘operation feed yourself ’ would be launched, and households would be encouraged take advantage of the rich soil to produce the basic vegetables needed at homes, “we are also going to encourage institutional farming, every secondary school in this country.
“We want to introduce something new to reduce food losses in this country, by encouraging the private sector to put in place processing plants close to the farms so that as soon the produce are ready they just buy and process them for the market,” he added.
He further mentioned that in efforts to address difficulties in assessing land for agricultural purposes and make it attractive to the youth, the government would acquire the land, prepare it before handing it over to prospective investors for increase production.
The Minister-designate also noted that Ghanaians being hardworking would easily create huge markets for final cultural products to give confidence to farmers that when they produce, there would be market available for their produce, adding that “ that is why in our manifesto we have emphasised on Agri business as the marriage between agriculture and industry to drive the 24-hour economy policy.”
BY LAWRENCE VOMAFA-AKPALU
