By Comfort Sena Fetrie-Akagbor
Tamale, June 1, GNA – Alhaji Mohammed Hardi, the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, has appealed to key stakeholders to develop sustainable interventions for the accelerated development of the Ghana Agricultural Sector Investment Programme (GASIP).
He said those interventions should promote the development of GASIP’s comprehensive exit and sustainability plan to improve food security in Ghana.
Alhaji Tuferu made the appeal in Tamale during the handing over of installations to collaborating institutions by GASIP.
Through the programme and other sister projects, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) assisted smallholder farmers to play their role in ensuring food security and poverty reduction through adequate staple food production for local consumption and export, he said.
Through GASIP, smallholder farmers collectively produced about 80 per cent of staple foods consumed in the country.
Alhaji Tuferu noted that the GASIP had enhanced access to markets, and increased productivity and incomes across the country.
Mr Klutse Kudomor, the National Programme Coordinator, GASIP, said the project, which became effective in May 2015, was scheduled for completion in August 2023.
Funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and implemented by MoFA, the programme is to increase the profitability and climate change resilience of smallholder farmers through sustainable farmer-based organisations and other agribusiness enterprises.
Mr Kudomor said it had achieved its goals and objectives “to contribute to sustainable poverty reduction in rural Ghana and ensure that agribusinesses, including smallholders, increase their profitability and resilience to climate change.”
The programme is being implemented in 14 regions and 81 districts through 600 farmer-based oganisations and 53 Value Chain drivers.
“In fact, the programme has also gone beyond boundaries by mimicking the almighty LEAP Programme where an amount of US$1.85 million has also been disbursed as Cash-Based Transfers to vulnerable farmers,” he said.
Mr Robert Patrick Ankobiah, the Chief Director, MOFA, said GASIP’s intervention had boosted yields of smallholder farmers and ensured stable supply of raw materials to agro-processors.
He urged stakeholders and the beneficiaries to use the skills acquired to improve food production in the country.
GNA