The Mayor of Tamale Iddrisu Musah Superior has announced that government is fashioning out targeted policies towards ensuring that agriculture is properly positioned to play its critical role in ensuring the agenda of ‘’Ghana beyond Aid’’ is fulfilled.
He was speaking at the 34th National Farmers Day celebration at Yong Dakpemyili, a community in Tamale metropolis. It was on the theme; ‘’Agriculture moving Ghana beyond aid’’.
According to the mayor, government over the past two years has rolled out a number of initiatives in the sector, such as ‘Planting for food and jobs’, ‘Planting for Export and Development’ (PERD),’ ‘Rearing for Food and Jobs’ (RFJ) and ‘One Village One Dam’ (1V1D).
These initiatives, Mr. Musah said, not only sought to address the country’s food security challenges but also intend to make the agriculture sector an attractive venture to create opportunities for many more people to take the advantage in order to become productive citizens.
He stated that in 2017, a total of 326 farmers benefited directly from the planting for food and jobs credit facility aside the 50 percent subsidy on seed and fertilizers for all farmers. He added that a total amount of 485,583 Ghana cedis was expended on seed and fertilizer subsidies for farmers.
However, this year, the number of beneficiary farmers the mayor noted haw increased to 3,979 farmers with 35,050 of NPK and 17,000 UREA fertilizer distributed. Mr. Musah revealed that government has procured 3000 motor bikes for distribution to agriculture extension agents and some field officers, adding that close to 2700 permanent extension staff are being recruited to augment dwindling staff in the agriculture sector.
BY: LILIAN D. WALTER
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