Agricultural Issues
New Holland Delivers Fleet of 125 Tractors to Ghana's Ministry of Food and Agriculture
Marketwire (press release)
Ghana's Ministry of Food and Agriculture Takes Delivery of a Fleet of 125 New Holland Tractors as Part of a National Program to Support the Development of Small Farm Agriculture.
New Holland Agriculture delivers this week 125 New Holland TD80 straddle mount tractors at a ceremony to be held at the premises of the Agricultural Engineering Services Directory of Ghana's Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA). Sirius Corporation, a world leading trading company, was tasked by the Government of Japan with sourcing the equipment for this donation as part of an international aid project. CFAO Equipment, New Holland's official distributor in Ghana, will provide technical and service support for these units.
Japan extends $5.1 million Agricultural Grant to MOFA
BusinessGhana
The Japanese Government has extended agricultural machinery worth 5.1 million dollars to Ghana under the grant assistance for underprivileged farmers to increase food production.
The machinery is comprised of 125 agricultural tractors with matching implements, 10 rice mills, 35 rice threshing machines, 35 rice reapers, two combine harvesters and 40 irrigation pumps.
A statement issued in Accra on Monday said the machinery would be sold to farmers by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) at subsidized prices.
Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister of Agriculture, receiving the machinery said; “Government’s expectation to meet agricultural annual average growth rate of a minimum of six per cent envisaged under the vision 2015 programme from the current rate of 5.5 per cent will not only call for the intensification of production methods, but the modernization of agriculture.”
Armajaro Brings Farm Inputs Closer to Cocoa Farmers
Myjoyonline.com
Licensed cocoa buying company, Armajaro Ghana, is financing the construction of ten cocoa depots in selected towns in the Ashanti, Bono Ahafo, Western and Central Regions.
The initiative is to standardize the company’s depots which among others will also serve as purchasing outlets for good quality cocoa seedlings and other inputs for farmers.
Food Crisis/Security
Ghana Has Food Buffer to Last 3 Weeks In Case of Food Shortage
Myjoyonline.com
The Chief Executive of the National Food Buffer Stock Company, Eric Osei-Owusu has said the country’s current stock of food reserve can last for a maximum of 3 weeks in case of a food shortage.
“We are a population of 24 million and so you need a lot of food to keep people going for a while before imports come in” he explained adding that government is not just “sitting and watching and not doing anything. Certainly, government is taking a lot of steps” to avert the occurrence of such a situation.
Ghana, CIDA to Boost Food Security
Ghana
The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) yesterday signed an agreement designed to boost food security and safeguard the environment of the northern belt of the country.
The project, which spans a period of eight years, involves an outlay of 14.3 million Canadian dollars, and is intended to assist Ghana in its efforts to achieve food security through environmentally sound agricultural development.
Under the agreement, four non-governmental organisations are to benefit from the first phase estimated at GH¢3.4 million.
Local Government/Decentralization
Government Asked to Make Decentralization Function Well
Ghana Business News
Mr. Samuel Apenteng, an immediate past Presiding Member of the Akuapem North District Assembly, on Wednesday appealed to the government and future ones to make decentralization function properly because previous ones failed to activate the concept.
He indicated that various past governments only paid lip-service to the system and rather executed most policies which were not in the interest of the grassroots.
Mr. Apenteng was speaking at the 11th Annual National Constitution Week celebration in Koforidua, by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), to discuss on the state of Ghana’s Democracy under the topic, “Decentralization.”