Government wants to invest $ 500 million in agricultural mechanization | Economy

Food and Agriculture Minister Owusu Afriyie Akoto said the Akufo-Addo administration would invest about half a billion dollars to modernize the country's agricultural mechanization centers.

According to him, the National Democratic Congress (NEC) during the last eight years of its mandate destroyed the 167 agricultural mechanization centers that had been bequeathed to it by the former government of President John Agyekum Kufuor.

He said this on Wednesday in Accra, in an interview with the media, on the sidelines of a courtesy call from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

During his visit to the Minister of Agriculture, Blair was to discuss investment opportunities in Ghana's agricultural sector.

The minister said the government had reached an agreement with Brazil and took delivery of the three tranches of mechanisms for the agricultural sector.

The three, he said, bring in about $ 99 million and that in the next 10 days, the Indian Eximbank will sign a $ 150 million agricultural mechanization program for Ghana.

He also noted that additional support was expected from the Czech Republic, which would total about half a billion dollars.

The level of investment in mechanization, he said, was unprecedented and this has never happened in the history of Ghana.

According to him, the government's goal was to improve food yields in the country, pointing out that after inheriting 60,000 tons of soybeans from the NDC, the administration of &, de,,,,,,,,,,,, Akufo-Addo had managed to increase the tonnage to 100,000 and that it was planned to increase production to about 200,000.

He said the government plans to launch another agricultural program called "livestock for food and employment".

The initiative, he said, aims to revive the livestock industry in the country, to provide more protein to the nation and to create new export opportunities.

He said the government was looking for ways to diversify the economy and relinquish its excessive dependence on cocoa as the main cash crop.

He said that this month, President Akufo-Addo would launch a program entitled "Plantation for Export and Rural Development", which would allow the production of six exportable cash crops, including coffee, coconut cashew, coconut and mango.

He said the government would also invest in the creation of vegetable distribution centers or green villages.

Again, the minister explained that in 2019, the government would support about one million farmers in the country with subsidized seedlings.