The Food and Agriculture Ministry has under its sleeves a plane to motivate and encourage institutions to go into large scale farming.
The plan is to give a handsome reward to the best farming institution on every farmer’s day. Institutions such as schools, security services,churches as well as National Service are therefore encouraged to venture into farming to help reduce food importation to the bearest minimum.
This was made known by the Minister for Food and Agriculture Hon Eric Opoku at a sensitization meeting with farmers and the media on the feed Ghana project launched by the government some few months ago.
Hon Opoku sounded worried about the fact that the nation Ghana has fertile lands yet it is unable to produce enough food to feed the people let alone for export.
The minister reiterated the fact Ghana spends about 2.4 billion dollars each year to import food stuff in the the country out of this 24 million dollars is spent on onion alone .
This staggering figure has compelled government to reverse the trend and change the narrative. By so doing as according to the Minister government will soon open farmers center in all farming districts across the country where farm equipment and inputs would be made available and accessible for the use of farmers.
Hon Eric Opoku urged the people to form co-operative unions in order to get the needed support from government as they embark on farming.
He mentioned several prominent personalities in society including President John Mahama and Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu ll as large scale farmers and therefore urged the youth to go into farming since it is an avenue for job creation, strengthens the local currency and a source of poverty eradication.
Story by Lawrence Kumah
