President John Dramani Mahama has announced that government is investing huge sums of money on Agriculture to ensure self-sufficiency and export to other neighbouring countries.
The investment, he said, was on rice, maize, soya beans, shrimps, coffee and palm oil production.
President Mahama, who was addressing a news conference, as part of his third year in office, said Ghana had no reason to continue importing certain products it had the comparative advantage to produce and export.
The conference was attended by over 100 journalists drawn from the public, private and international media, where the President explained some of his policies and outlined future development plans.
He said government’s investment on rice had raised local rice production from 30 percent to 60 percent, and thereby, reducing the importation of the commodity which is a major staple in the country.
He said about 10, 000 acres of land was irrigated for rice cultivation, indicating that the Asutuare rice farmlands were becoming small for the farmers on account of the growing demands to engage in the cultivation of the commodity.
President Mahama said under the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority, government would expand irrigation projects in the Nasia and Nabogu rice, soya beans and maize farms in the Northern Region.
The President said the Ministry of Fishery and Acquaculture was also engaged in ensuring sufficient production of shrimps for domestic consumption and for export.
He expressed regret that Ghana was importing palm oil from other countries, despite the comparative advantage it had, to produce sufficient quantities of the product to meet the demands of Ghanaians and neighbouring countries.
President Mahama said as a measure to resuscitate coffee production in the country, COCOBOD in collaboration with Cocoa Touton, a French cocoa processing company in Ghana, were working out plans to supply two million coffee seedlings to farmers throughout the country.
He said government would continue to provide the necessary support to farmers to help them expand production and help reduce the importation of food crops.
