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| British High Commissioner |
The United Kingdom (UK) Government has disapproved
government of Ghana’s over indulgence in the importation of rice, tomato,
poultry and vegetable among others, instead of building a vibrant and dynamic
agriculture sector to stimulate the needed economic growth.
The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr. Jon
Benjamin who tasked the government to reduce its wage bill on rice, tomato and
vegetable importation, also raised alarm over the untapped or unfulfilled
agriculture potentials found in Northern Ghana and challenged government to
overturn the situation.
According to the British High Commissioner, the North
of Ghana has a large number of subsistence farmers, who could be empowered to
go into large-scale farming to earn more income to cater for their families and
improve the national economy.
“Ghana is importing onions and tomatoes from
Burkina Faso that could easily be produced here, so that speaks to unfulfilled
potential, and also speaks to the fact that too many farmers operate on
subsistence level where outside the system, they could scale up and earn more
income for their families.”
Speaking at the official launch of UK government's
Department of International Development (DFID) initiated five (5) year pro-poor
agricultural programme dubbed “Market Development (MADE) programme in Tamale,
Mr. Jon Benjamin announced a whopping 14.3 million pounds investment into the
MADE programme by his government.
He said that the intervention formed part of the UK
government’s commitment to unlock agribusiness and investment opportunities in
63 districts within the Northern Savannah Ecological zone where poverty was
endemic.
The programme was also designed to improve market
interactions between the main players in the agricultural value chain such as
the producers, the farmers, buyers, financial institutions, the entrepreneurs
and the service providers among others.
The UK High Commissioner maintained that with the MADE
programme market systems in Northern Ghana would be improved to meet
international standards as means of improving rural livelihood.
He said that since its establishment in 2014, the
programme had managed to attract private sector seed and input dealer companies
into the Northern Savannah Ecological zone who were into partnership with over
10,000 smallholder farmers and aggregators MADE has been working with. It is
expected to end in 2018 for a possible second phase based on the success of the
first phase.
Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in-charge of
crops, Dr. Ahmed Yakubu Alhassan commended the UK government for the
intervention which he said would complement Ghana government’s agriculture
interventions to enhance the living conditions of the farmers.
Dr. Alhassan, however, said alleviating poverty and
ensuring food security in northern Ghana did not lie in handouts, but rather on
carefully designed investment in agribusiness. He pointed out that the
North of Ghana had great investment potentials and urged investors to explore
these avenues.
The Northern Regional Minister, Abdallah Abubakari
encouraged all private sector players and investors at the function to take
advantage of the enabling environment created by the government in the
agricultural sector of the north. Adding that, “the area has a lot of potential
in agriculture; vast and rich arable land for rice and vegetable cultivation”.
The Executive Director of the Association of Ghana
Industries, Seth Twum-Akwaboah maintained that, the agric sector should be
revamped to curtail the influx of youth migration to southern Ghana in search
of non-existing white colour jobs.
The maiden edition of the agribusiness and
investment event was launched on the theme: ‘The north is ready for
business, are you?’ Over a hundred local and multinational exhibitors
participated in the agribusiness and investment event.
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