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| Charles Abugri, Ag. CEO, SADA |
Having
suffered serious image battering early this year following a media expose
suggesting huge investments made in afforestation and guinea fowl rearing
projects failed abysmally, SADA has bounced back with support towards the
organisation of this year’s Farmers Day Celebration in its operational area.
The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority
(SADA) has donated 69 corn shellers to all regional and district directorates
of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to enable them put together
handsome packages for deserving farmers who will be rewarded in this year’s
Farmers Day Celebration scheduled to come off on December 5, 2014.
“Last year, SADA supported the regional Farmer’s
Day Celebration with five tricycles– one per each region. This year, the
support is being extended to all the SADA regions and districts through the
donation of corn shellers” Adam Sule, Board Member of SADA said this when he
handed over the items to the MoFA Directors in Tamale.
In January this year, President Mahama
instructed the former Board of SADA to in consultation with the
Attorney-General, terminate a 47 million cedi guinea fowl and afforestation contract
it entered into with the Asongtaba Cottage Industries.
An amount of GH¢32 million out of the
overall total was allocated for the afforestation project. A few years after
the contract was signed and the amount disbursed, nothing concrete according to
government was achieved. It emerged through media investigations that all the
seedlings bought and planted had withered or been destroyed by wild fire.
According to a statement issued and signed
by the President’s Spokesperson Ben Dotse Malor, the presidency acknowledged
the necessary systems had not been put in place before the contracts were
signed.
The statement, thus requested the then "SADA
Board to hold consultations with the Forestry Commission and the Ministry of
Local Government to work out a strategy for the proper implementation of the
afforestation and tree growing project, on a decentralized basis."
Mr. Sule noted that, SADA since 2012 has supported the cultivation of
maize across all the districts in the programme’s operational area also known
as the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone (NSEZ).
“In the first year, over 8,000 hectares were cultivated. Last year,
over 18,000 hectares of maize were again cultivated. So far, over 25,000
farmers have been supported to grow maize, rice and soybeans.
“This is in fulfillment of the objective of promoting an effective
modernisation of agriculture through building the asset base of farm households
for agricultural modernisation; and increasing agricultural productivity to
world average levels, thus generating an internally competitive smallholder
agricultural production sector”, Mr. Sule stressed.
The National Farmers Day is commemorated
each year on the first Friday of December to honour Ghana’s gallant farmers and
fishers. The event acknowledges the vital position farmers and fishers occupy
in the nations socio-economic development.
In particular, Ghana acknowledges farmers
and fishers untiring efforts at feeding the country’s growing population,
providing raw materials to industries, and contributing substantially to her
foreign exchange earnings.
SADA, a government policy initiative
established by an Act of Parliament (Act 805, 2010) is aimed at addressing the
development gap that exists between Northern and Southern Ghana. SADA’s mandate
is to accelerate the socio-economic development of the NSEZ through strategic
investment in resource development.
It envisions a “Forested North” by 2030,
where agricultural production is modernised and oriented towards a larger
market. It seeks to benefit citizens of the NSEZ which include the Upper West,
Upper East and Northern Regions as well as parts of the Brong Ahafo and the
Volta Regions.
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