Adaptation To Agricultural Technology Holds Prospects for Sector


Mr Kofi Humado, Minister of Food and Agriculture on Friday said adaptation to innovation in agricultural technology and strategic planning holds the prospects to shore up productivity and create wealth in the sector.

He disclosed this at the symbolic inauguration of a three One-Stop-Centre (OSC) for agricultural merchandise constructed in the Afadzato South, Jasikan and Kadjebi districts of the Volta region at Atonkor.

The OSC, a nobility of AFRICARE, an international non-govermental agricultural development organisation comprised a warehouse, training centre, agro-input shop, farmers' library and a community demonstration plot with funding from the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

The Centre is to aggregate and facilitate access to farm produce and storage, serve as platform for pricing and measuring, imparting knowledge, depot for agro-chemical and machinery and practicalising of new methods and technology. 

Mr Humado said the novelty in the OSC, when scaled-up across the country would revolutionalise the sector by bringing technology, market and knowledge closer to farmers and farmer-based organisations, contributing to food security, reduction of poverty and overall economic growth.

"The OSC is the way forward for this country if we are to develop agriculture successfully.  I have been all over the country and around the world, I have seen many innovations but this is the way forward,” the Minister said.

He called for closer collaboration between Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and the MOFA regional and district offices towards bridging the yawning gap between them for the sustenance and contribution to economic growth.

Mr Humado said that the Ministry was implementing farmer-friendly forward-looking policies within the decentralisation process but announced that the Ministry would continue to provide oversight responsibility to some of its crucial areas including irrigation services, plant quarantine activities, vertinary services and agriculture research facilities.

He has charged the district and municipal chief executive to take charge and work to promote agriculture at the local level. 

Mr Emmanuel Dzameshie, Project Coordinator of AFRICARE in the Volta region said his outfit received funding from AGRA to promote the use of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) practices to reduce land degradation, increase crop productivity and incomes.

He said its overall goal is to increase agricultural productivity in sustainable ways towards the reduction of the open slash and burn prevalent in the region.

Mr Dzameshie, said the project has over the period created awareness among 50,000 farmers in Hohoe, Afadzato South, Jasikan, Kadjebi and Biakoye districts.

He mentioned its successes as maize yield increasing to 3.8 tons/hectare from the 1.5 tons/ha, when the project started in 2011, with cassava yields making 15 tons/ha better than the previous nine tons/ha and the cultivation of cowpea increasing in multiple folds.

The Project Coordinator said credit access worth over GH¢400,000 was distributed as soft loans among rural smallholder farmers through Sina Aba Savings & Loans Company Limited and about 90 percent of the loans have been recovered.

AFRICARE since inception in 1970 has provided over US$ 1 Billion assistance through more than 2,500 projects in agriculture/food security, water, sanitation and hygiene, women's empowerment, health, HIV and AIDS that have impacted millions of beneficiaries in 36 countries in Africa. 

SOURCE: GNA