BACKGROUND
The Government of Ghana has developed the Medium Term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) to implement the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy
(FASDEP II) over the medium term 2011-2015. It is the framework of interventions for the agriculture sector to play its role in the national economy in the context of the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda (GSGDA) which is the national programme of economic and social development policies coordinated by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC). METASIP is also in fulfilment of Ghana’s participation in agriculture related initiatives of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Africa Union Commission (AUC) under the framework of the ECOWAS Agriculture Policy (ECOWAP) and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).
The METASIP is a result of a consultative, technical and budgetary process. It takes into account ongoing projects and adopts the sector wide approach (SWAp) for its implementation to bring on board key stakeholders and agencies in the agriculture sector through coordination and participation in harmony with the CAADP principles. It also applies the value chain for commodity development which complements the SWAp.
It is expected that through cooperation, coordination and commitment of all sector stakeholders taking up their roles in plan implementation, (MDAs, Private Sector, including Farmers, Processors, Traders, NGOs, Traditional Rulers and Civil Society, Development Partners, among others) Ghana can overcome the challenges facing the food and agriculture sector to enhance economic growth, create employment, increase incomes, reduce poverty, achieve food security and enhance rural development.
The METASIP is for the period 2011-2015 and comprises the following six programmes which correspond to the FASDEP II and represent Ghana’s priorities within the four CAADP Pillars:
(i) Food security and emergency preparedness
(ii) Improved growth in incomes
(iii) Increased competitiveness and enhanced integration into domestic and international markets
(iv) Sustainable management of land and environment
(v) Science and technology applied in food and agriculture development
(vi) Enhanced institutional coordination
The programmes have been developed through:
- Stocktaking of ongoing agricultural development efforts in Ghana and identified gaps that need to be filled to increase success;
- Identification of strategic options and sources of poverty reducing growth to guide development efforts in the sector;
- Development of investment programmes;
The draft METASIP was the basis for a roundtable conference in Accra, Ghana in October 2009 during which key sector stakeholders signed a compact by which they pledged their support to realizing the aspirations of the investment plan. The final METASIP was subjected to a technical review by ECOWAS and NEPAD which included a reformatting for all participating countries so as to have comparable documents to facilitate collaboration, peer review etc.
A multi-stakeholder (country team) Steering Committee has been put in place at the national level to oversee implementation. Programmes and activities are to be prioritized according to the relative needs, importance and competitive advantage through decentralized planning.