A section of the participants at the review meeting
CABINET WILL soon consider a new bill to create Crop
Development Authority intended to facilitate and promote the production,
marketing and licensing of food crops in the country.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie
Akoto, who announced this, said major staple food crops, including
maize, rice, sorghum, soybean and vegetables are expected to come under the
authority to ensure increased production and quality of the produce.
He was speaking in Kumasi at the 2018/2019 agricultural Joint
Sector Review (JSR) meeting aimed at building consensus on how to consolidate
success chalked and tackle challenges in the sector in moving forward.
The JSR meeting was attended by representatives of
development partners, allied Ministries, District Assemblies, Regional
Coordinating Councils, private sector and civil society groups.
The Minister said the Crop Development Authority bill,
when passed into law, will among other things, help increase and expand the
productive capacity of the agricultural sector as a basis for poverty reduction
and wealth creation through value chain development and
industrialization.
He explained that the authority will work in similar
fashion like the Ghana Cocoa Board which regulates marketing of cocoa, coffee
and sheanut.
According to him, the NPP government, upon assumption of
office, saw that the state of Ghana’s agriculture was far from desirable,
adding that what was more disturbing was the fact that the potential existed to
transform the agriculture into a solid growth pole for accelerated development.
This picture, he noted, propelled government through the
Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to come up with innovative ideas that
brought forth the flagship programme – Planting for Food and Jobs.
“Consistent with Government’s strategy of
comprehensively addressing the problems of the agricultural sector, five
modules have been developed and are being rolled out,” Dr Akoto stated.
He mentioned the modules as the Planting for Food and
Jobs (PFJ), Planting for Export and Rural Development, Rearing for Food and
Jobs, Greenhouse villages and mechanization.
He disclosed that in spite of some constraints, the
passionate and focused implementation of the PFJ has paid good dividends –
phenomenal increase in yields for the selected value chains.
“Associated with this are the on-farm and off-farm jobs that continue to be created under the programme,” he indicated.
From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi
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