Accra, Nov. 13, GNA - Government has constructed 200 out of 560 small earth dams in the five northern regions, in fulfilment of the “One Village One Dam promise, Mr Kenneth Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance said on Wednesday.
The move, he said was part of government’s agriculture modernisation programme aimed at improving production efficiency, achieving food security, and profitability for our farmers, and significantly increasing agricultural productivity as the basis for industrialization, job creation and export.
Delivery the 2020 budget in parliament, Mr Ofori-Atta said, government would increase subsidies on retail prices of seeds, fertilizers and other agrochemicals, focus on developing irrigation schemes.
He said, government would facilitate the provision of community owned dams and manage small-scale irrigation facilities across the country, especially in Northern Ghana, through the policy of “One Village, One Dam”, and improve the ratio of extension officer to farmers.
“Over the last three years, significant progress has been made in the agricultural modernization programme. We have delivered this agenda through our key flagship initiative, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) under the following modules; Food Crop Production; Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD); Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ); Greenhouse Technology Development as well as Mechanization for Food and Jobs,” he said.
Mr Ofori-Atta noted that under the Food Crop Production module sixteen selected commodities including maize, rice, sorghum, soybean, plantain, vegetables and Orange Flesh Sweet Potato would be promoted.
So far he recalled that, “Between 2017 and 2018, a total subsidy in the form of 12,000 Metric Tonne (MT) of organic and 821,778MT of blended inorganic fertilizers as well as 24,000 MT of improved seeds valued at GH¢0.6 billion was provided to about 1.9 million farmers.”
On warehouse, he said government had constructed 80 thousand-metric tonnes warehouses equipped with dryers, laboratories and solar powered under the “One-District-One-Warehouse Initiative.”
GNA
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