An Inter-Ministerial Committee, comprising members from the Food and Agriculture and the Information Ministries, has been inaugurated to oversee the upcoming official launch of the Government’s flagship Agricultural Project dubbed “Planting for Food and Jobs”.
The National Organizing Committee has been tasked with the responsibility of engaging various stakeholders in the preparation stage ahead of the launching scheduled to take place in the Brong Ahafo Region on April 19, 2017.
It has the Deputy Minister-designate for Information, Mr. Perry Curtis Okudzeto, as Chairman with the Chief Technical Advisor at the Agric Ministry, Mr. Asante Krobea, as member.
Other members include the Press Secretary to the Food and Agriculture Minister, Mr. Issah Alhassan, Personal Assistant, Frank Amoako and Mr. Theophilus Osei Owusu as well as Philip Osei-Nkrumah from the Agric Ministry.
They will work alongside a Local Organizing Committee(LOC) to be inaugurated in Sunyani next week.
The President, His Excellency Nana Addo Akuffo Addo, will be expected to do the official launching to kick start the campaign to revolutionalize the country’s agriculture with the aim of increasing food production whilst cutting down on billions of dollars used to import food items into the country annually.
It will involve the supply of improved seedlings and fertilizers at subsidized prices as well as the provision of extension services, marketing opportunities for produce and use of data collection technology for farmers.
The project is also targeted at creating over 750,000 direct jobs for Ghanaians who will be actively involved in the pilot phase of the project this year, whilst expecting to spearhead government’s agricultural modernization policy for the next five years.
Inaugurating the Committee, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, said Government was committed towards creating job opportunities for the teeming youth through agricultural modernization.
He expressed worry about the declining trends of the growth of agriculture over the past eight years and pledged that the President Nana Akufo Addo-led administration of the NPP will do everything possible to reverse the trend.
He noted that the campaign will also be private sector led, adding that government will involve the private sector at both the production and harvesting stages in terms of addition of value and prevention of post harvest losses.