[ 2011-04-14 ]

MoFA poised to make agric lucrative - Badu Yeboah
Mr George Badu-Yeboah, Central Regional Director
of Agriculture, stressed on Wednesday that the
Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) would
transform farming into a lucrative venture.

He said through the modernization of the sector
they would attract the youth into the business and
improve the livelihood of farmers.

Mr Badu-Yeboah gave the assurance at the opening
of a two-day stakeholders' forum on the theme:
"Unifying all Stakeholders in Agriculture to Move
Agriculture Forward in Central Region", at Cape
Coast

He said well coordinated, regulated and strategic
agricultural activities would be executed in the
region to help increase the income of farmers,
particularly, the rural poor, and to improve upon
the socio-economic status of the region.

Development partners, district directors of MoFA,
representatives of the Central Region Development
Commission (CEDECOM), Twifo Oil Palm Plantation
Kakum Rural Bank and the Business Advisory Centres
(BAC) are attending the forum.

Mr Badu-Yeboah said the forum is to spot
development partners and their plan of activities
for the sector and to come out with
recommendations that would be mainstreamed into
the plans of MoFA.

He said Stakeholders must pool their resources to
push the agenda of enhancing sustainable food
security in the region which would transform into
good standard of living to propel it into the
status of fourth richest region in the country.

The Central Regional minister, Mrs Ama
Benyiwa-Doe, in a speech read on her behalf,
expressed concern about the absence of a framework
between the (MoFA) and developmental partners
resulting in duplication of programmes and called
for a guide on development interventions.

She said: "Modernizing poor smallholder
agriculture can be achieved when there is
abundance in access to credit and technology, good
infrastructure and markets for agricultural
produce… I commended the regional MoFA for
spearheading such an initiative to ensure
coordination."

Mr Peter Omega, Regional Agric Officer Extension,
enumerated food insecurity, low technology
development and dissemination, inadequate human
resources, low level of natural resources, climate
change and high labour cost as some of the
constraints impinging on the modernization of
agriculture in the region.

Professor Adjei Kwarteng, Dean of the School of
Agriculture, who chaired the function, noted that
development was about people, therefore, the
sector should be given the needed boost by all
stakeholders to ensure its growth to raise the
income levels of the lot of the rural poor.

He said the world market had become highly
competitive, therefore, farmers in Ghana needed to
produce to meet international standards with the
support of development partners.

Source - GNA

... go Back