Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto
GHANA IS hoping to reduce its meat
import by 95 per cent over the next five years as it aggressively rolls out its
new agricultural programme, the Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ).
Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of
Agriculture has said within two years from the commencement of the RFJ
initiative, “meat import will reduce by 70% and 95% by year 5.”
The RFJ project, he said, “Is expected
to generate 24,516 direct jobs in the first year and would increase to
1,336,165 by year 5. A total of 1,558,860 direct and indirect jobs would be
generated by the fifth year.”
The Minister has revealed that “it is
also expected that total revenue of GH₵690,741,181 would be generated from
production of these animals by year 2 and increase in year 5 to GH₵
4.03billion.”
Ghana, according to the Minister, stands
to gain immensely from the Rearing for Food and Jobs initiative.
On
Monday, June 24, President Akufo-Addo assisted by the minister launched the RFJ
initiative in Wa, which is another module of his administration’s flagship
programme –Planting for Food and Jobs. The campaign will run for 5
years, from 2019 to 2023,
According to the Minister, the RFJ initiative
would among other things help “to develop a competitive and more efficient
livestock industry that increases domestic production, reduces importation of
livestock products and contributes to employment generation and to the
improvement of livelihoods of livestock value chain actors and the national
economy.”
Statistics
Data from the Ministry indicates that
the country’s livestock industry prior to the launch of the RFJ had “national
meat requirement at 400,200MT based
on per capita consumption of meat (13.8kg)
(Population 29 million).”
The statistics revealed that estimated
meat imports stood at 243,000MT (Poultry about 200,000MT, other meats 43 000MT).
Estimated Local meat production (4yr
Av.) stood at 42,198MT, it said, adding that meat available for consumption
(2018) was about 285,198mt (imports
+ local production)
The Ministry reported a meat deficit of
about 115,000MT
Benefits
According to the Ministry, an assessment
it carried out “indicated that there would be direct and indirect copious and
varied benefits and impacts from the RFJ.”
It revealed that “in the short term, the
programme would lead to increased production and value addition of the selected
livestock and poultry.”
It added that “for instance, it is estimated that meat production volumes would generally increase from year 2 from 170,016MT to 794,493MT in year 5 (an increase of 367.2%) and livestock numbers will increase from 117,043,945 in year 2 to 513,134,435 in year 5 (increase of 338.4%).”
BY Melvin Tarlue
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