The World Bank has pledged continuing technical and financial support to improve Ghana’s agriculture for enhanced food production for local consumption and export.
He said Ghana had the capacity to produce enough food to feed herself and export to other African countries.
The Regional Vice President for West and Central, Ousmane Diagana, made the pledge here yesterday after his working visit to Asutsuare.
He was there to inspect some projects on the $150 million West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP).
Some of the projects he inspected are the Kpong Irrigation Scheme and Kpong Left Bank Irrigation Scheme, Agropole, being supported in their rehabilitation to boost commercial and small-scale farming in the Accra plains.
As part of the tour, Mr Diagana visited Gel Banana Farms, Golden Exotics Limited and Smallholder Rice Farms which are utilising the irrigation schemes.
The objective of the visit was to see the progress of work on the project and interact with beneficiary farmers.
The FRSP is a Government of Ghana and World Bank-funded programme being implemented under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The FRSP Ghana project which is a sequel to the Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project, has received an initial funding of $150 million from the International Development Association (IDA).
The project, which started in June 2023 and expected to be completed in September 2028, has the objective to increase the country’s preparedness against food insecurity and improve the resilience of food systems in Ghana through the construction of irrigation schemes across the country in order to ensure all-year-round commercial and small-scale farming.
After the tour of the projects, Mr Diagana said the country needed to reform her agriculture to become food systems resilient and the World Bank would continue to support Ghana in that direction.
He said agriculture was essential to promote food security, job creation, poverty reduction and that “No country can achieve food security without investing in agriculture in agriculture.”
The Project Coordinator of the FRSP Ghana, Mr Osei Owusu-Agyeman, said as part of the project, the two irrigation schemes were being rehabilitated to boost agriculture in the area.
He said road infrastructure, and warehouses had be constructed to help store the food crops produced in the area.
Mr Owusu-Agyeman said smart-climate interventions has been introduced to help the farmers withstand the effects of climate change.
The Managing Director of Pel’s Farms Trading Limited, Ms Priscilla Adom Tawiah, appealed to the World Bank for matching grants to support the investors by utilising the two irrigation schemes for agricultural purposes.
She said credit was a big challenge facing the investors, saying it was expensive to rely on bank loans to finance their agricultural operations.
The Divisional Chief of Tsangmer and Acting Chief of Asutsuare l, Nene Narh Guamatsu IV, in his remarks indicated that the Osudoku Traditional Area had vast lands for agricultural purposes and the rehabilitation of the irrigation schemes would help increase food productivity in the area.
That, he said, would also help promote the country’s food resilience and security.
Nene Narh Guamatsu IV appealed to the government to involve the chiefs and traditional authorities of the area in the allocation of the Accra Plains lands to investors for agricultural purposes, saying the chiefs and traditional authorities were left out in such negotiations.
FROM KINGSLEY ASARE, ASUTSUARE
