[ad_1]
Participants after the opening session of the three-day workshop
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) announced its decision to diversify the cocoa cash crop sector to cover other crops.
The crops targeted are coffee, coconut, palm oil, mango, rubber and cashew.
As a result, the ministry is poised to launch another version of Planter for Food and Employment this year, entitled Planting for Food and Export.
"The ministry is working through local government structures for district bademblies to produce seedlings for free distribution to farmers in their districts," said the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto.
Seed experts
Speaking at the opening of a three-day workshop on the Seed Knowledge Bridge (SKG) in Akosombo, in the Eastern Region, Mr. Akoto said that all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directors (MMDCEs) aimed to produce seedlings from six countries. depending on the needs of the region and farmers.
SKG seeks to improve the seed sector by improving stakeholder access to information.
It is part of the overall strategy of AfricaSeeds, the implementing agency for the African Union (AU) seed program.
The workshop, which includes seed experts from selected West African countries, also serves to validate the preparatory phase of the consultants' draft report and project document for the upcoming main project. It is jointly organized by AfricaSeeds and the Forum for Agricultural Research. in Africa (FARA).
Sowing
Mr. Akoto announced that although the Plant for Food and Export program is not yet launched, last year, 9.3 million seedlings were produced.
"This year, we expect that 22 million seedlings will be distributed among farmers," he said, adding that it was expected that within five years, diversified crops would begin to generate foreign currency. for the country.
He added that cocoa had become a source of over-dependence for the country over the years and that it was time for the country to look elsewhere.
Improve yields
Akoto said the government's agricultural policy was aimed at producing more and importing less.
For example, he said, when the government took office in January 2017, the country was spending 1 billion GH ¢ per year for rice imports, even though it had the potential to produce enough to feed.
He said Ghana was one of the countries with the lowest food crop yields in the world, as farmers continued to use traditional seeds, which had low yields.
As a result, he said, the solution was to use improved seeds through technology, pointing out that seed technology was the least expensive way to improve yields.
According to Dr. Akoto, statistics have shown that a farmer using traditional seeds could only harvest three bags per acre, but that the same land space could provide 40 bags containing improved seeds, explaining that the idea was to ensure that all farmers depend on improved seeds.
The minister said that with a 50% grant, the government had turned to research institutes to produce more improved seeds. In 2017, 3,000 tons of seeds were produced. In 2018, this figure rose to 7,000 tons. reaches 14 000 tonnes.
He congratulated the seed experts and badured them that everything related to seed improvement would still benefit from his support and that of the government.
Collaboration
Mr. Krishna Bheenick, Senior FARA Capacity Development Specialist, said the workshop was a demonstration of the need to strengthen collaboration with all stakeholders.
He stated that FARA was the continental umbrella organization responsible for coordination and advocacy for agricultural research for development (AR4D) and was the technical body of the AU Commission for issues related to agricultural science, technology and innovation.
[ad_2]
Source link
