President Akufo-Addo has revealed that as government makes efforts to ensure the country is food sufficient, it will partner with the private sector to provide the necessary irrigation infrastructure to improve production of priority products.
The products include; maize, rice, soybean, sorghum, tomato, pepper, onion, cassava, yam, plantain.
Commenting on the positive gains achieved in the Agricultural sector under the leadership of Dr. Bryan Acheampong during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Tuesday February 27, 2024, President Akufo-Addo said “Mr Speaker, there is no argument that food self-sufficiency is the basic requirement for national security and the foundation for building a prosperous nation”.
President Akufo-Addo noted that, Last year, government reviewed the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) Programme, which had been implemented since 2017 and based on the lessons learnt government developed and launched, under the dynamic leadership of the new Minister for Food and Agriculture, the second phase of the PFJ.
According to the President, the second phase of the PFJ sets out a 5-year agenda to ensure food self-sufficiency and resilience including setting targets for the production some selected priority products in the immediate term.
“Mr Speaker, having determined that large scale commercial farming is the easiest way to achieve our set goal of food self-sufficiency, government, under the second phase of the PFJ, will establish Agricultural Zones as a
complementary initiative to address the issue of access to large tracts of agriculture land, to drive sustainable and commercially oriented agriculture. This will significantly expand Ghana’s productive capacity in products such as rice, soybean, maize and tomato”.
“For each Agricultural Zone, government will partner with the private sector to provide the necessary irrigation infrastructure, develop access roads, extend power (solar/hydro) and provide mechanization services”, the President stressed.
This in the long run will help reduce importation of priority products such as rice as witnessed between 2021
and 2023 when rice imports fell by some forty-five percent (45%).
