play videoMinister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto
The Akufo-Addo-led administration hopes to transform Ghana's economy through agriculture, Minister for Agric Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto has revealed.
According to the Minister, government is focused on supporting agric institutions such as WACCI to build a solid seed industry so the nation can move from the importation of seeds and effect, food, from other countries, a move aimed
Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto disclosed this at the launch of the 10th anniversary of the West Africa Centre for Cop Improvement (WACCI) in Accra on Wednesday, June 7.
According to the minister, because the country lacks a ready market for the glut that may arise out of government's policy of planting for food and jobs, the Akufo-Addo administration has decided to put in place a marketing storage infrastructure across all the districts in Ghana.
“Government has decided that after doing the initial survey we’re going to put in place marketing storage infrastructure in all the districts of this country”, Dr. Afriyie Akoto disclosed.
He added that this will help store the “surpluses and process them into a standard” so farmers can be issued a quality certificate to get money from the bank to carry on their trading.
Speaking at the same event, Vice-chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu said Africa needs to begin the agriculture revolution “if we want this continent to develop”.
He said there is the need to “train more agric experts, breeding agronomy protection, provide resources for us to move agriculture forward”. He was of the view that African countries have no challenged themselves enough when it comes to agriculture.
He also called on the government to speed up the establishment of the national research fund which is “extremely important for our national development in all aspects of research to generate the kind of knowledge that we want”.
Director of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) who shared the story of the centre over the past 10 years called on government and other institutions to assist the centre complete and furnish its new building to bring it up to world class standard.
He said WACCI has achieved a lot over the last 10 years and completing the new facility will give it the needed boost to do even more.
With the initial funds provided by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) for the establishment of the centre, WACCI has produced quality 35 PhD graduates in plant breeding who are game changers and making history on the African continent.
The centre will graduate 73 more PhD students in July this year.
