porn8.site videocelebs.net

Speech by Hon. Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister for Food and Agriculture at 37th National Farmers Day Celebration on 3rd December 2021 at Adisadel College Park, Cape Coast

  • YOUR EXCELLENCY, NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA
  • NANA CHAIRMAN, ODEEFO AMOAKWA BUADU, PRESIDENT OF THE CENTRAL REGIONAL HOUSE OF CHIEFS
  • MINISTER FOR FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE DEVELOPMENT, MRS. HAWA KOOMSON
  • MINISTERS OF STATE
  • THE CENTRAL REGIONAL MINISTER, MRS. JUSTINA MARIGOLD ASSAN
  • DEPUTY MINISTERS
  • CHAIRMAN & MEMBERS OF THE PARLIAMENTARY SELECT COMMITTEE ON FOOD, AGRICULTURE AND COCOA AFFAIRS
  • METROPOLITAN, MUNICIPAL AND DISTRICT CHIEF EXECUTIVES
  • MEMBERS OF THE DIPLOMATIC CORP
  • MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR AGRICULTURE DEVELOPMENT BANK AND HEADS OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS HERE ASSEMBLED
  • CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF GHANA COCOBOD
  • NANANOM
  • 2020 NATIONAL BEST FARMER,
  • DIRECTORS OF THE MINISTRY OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE AND MINSTRY OF FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE
  • MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA FRATERNITY.
  • INVITED GUESTS
  • LADIES AND GENTLEMEN

We are here today in Cape Coast, the capital of the Central Region, to observe National Farmers’ Day, one of the most important events on our National calendar.

As Minister for Food and Agriculture, whose key deliverables include organising the occasion of National Farmers’ Day, I am pleased to have you all join H.E the President to honour our farmers and fishers for consistently contributing to the Nation’s wellbeing and prosperity.

The celebration of National Farmers Day as we all know, is grounded in law, specifically the Public Holiday Act 2001(Act 601). This underlines the nation’s recognition of the unique role of farmers and fishers in our developmental efforts as a people.

Officially, Mr. President, the celebration of this year’s National Farmers’ Day event; (the 37th edition since inception) started five days ago, with the opening of an Agriculture Fair on Monday 29th November, 2021. The choice of the Central Region and Cape Coast as the venue for this year’s Farmers’ Day Celebrations, was determined by the long-standing principle of rotation of venues for hosting the National event.

On the occasion of the announcement of Central Region as the venue for this year’s event, the Regional Minister gave a firm assurance that the Region would deliver to expectation. My verdict is that, the organisation of both the Fair and Award Day has been inspiring. On this note let me congratulate the Regional Minister for a good work well done. Surely the impressive delivery has been a result of the active collaboration of the chiefs and the people of the Region. I therefore commend you all for a yeoman’s Job.

In this respect I should not forget the pivotal role of the National Organising Committee ably chaired by my Deputy Minister Honourable Frimpong Addo, Member of Parliament for Manso Adubia. I owe a debt of gratitude to him and his committee for their hard work and excellent organisation.

Mr. President, it is important to note that we are celebrating our farmers and fishers not only for the food they provide to all of us. As a nation we are equally grateful to our farmers and fishers for raking in scarce foreign exchange through the export of food and other commodities, for supporting our industrialisation drive by providing the requisite raw materials for industry, for opening up job opportunities through both on-farm and value addition to farm products and for attracting investment into the country. For these and many more we say “AYEKOO” to our farmers and fishers.

Mr. President, in spite of the major contribution of our farmers and fishers to National development, it is no secret that agriculture is confronted today by new challenges, such as climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and frequent outbreaks of animal diseases. These negative forces constantly threaten our national food security by undermining efforts of government to advance its transformation agenda for the agricultural sector. No doubt, the challenges impede progress, and they highlight the need for innovative and enduring strategies to safeguard our national food security.

Globally Mr. President, the prescribed solutions for managing the impact these counter-productive forces have on our food security, is to build and strengthen existing food systems. Luckily, we in Ghana, under the leadership of Your Excellency the President, are firmly on that path to building a robust, resilient and equitable food system that can withstand shocks. The evidence of this finds expression in Government’s flagship Programme, Planting for Food and Jobs which was launched by Mr. President in 2017.

All five modules of the PFJ are contributing significantly in the transformational agenda of Government. These are Food Crops module, the Tree Crops module, the Livestock module (Rearing for Food and Jobs), Greenhouse Technology module, and the Farm Mechanisation module. There is clear evidence that, these strategic interventions have a great potential to do more in the coming years.

Mr. President, right across these modules is an underlying strategy to promote agribusinesses along the value chains to ensure maximum returns to and job creation for the economy of Ghana. This is in the spirit of Ghana Beyond Aid.

Mr. President, the latest challenge to our Food Security agenda has been the recent global shortage of fertilizers and the dramatic rise in the international prices of the fertilizers. In some cases prices of fertilizers have risen three times in the world market in the last 12 months. Since we import all our fertilizer requirements, our farmers cannot escape the consequences on our domestic subsidy programme. In the meantime we at the Ministry are encouraging farmers to turn to organic fertilizers which are available locally. We are also redoubling our efforts in attracting the Multi-Billion US Dollars required to invest in a fertilizer manufacturing plant, using the surplus gas that we now find in our offshore explorations.

Mr. President, supporting agribusiness also means quality job creation for many especially the youth, the promotion of entrepreneurship in agriculture and wealth creation for entrepreneurs. As a Ministry we have, through the promotion of agribusiness, transformed the Youth in Agriculture Programme from a non-performing institution to a vibrant one since 2018.

The Youth in Agriculture Programme is designed to build the agro-technological skills of trainees so that they can be competitive agribusiness leaders. Under the Planting for Food and Jobs Campaign in 2021, the programme engaged over 15,000 youth, including young women, through 54 nucleus-outgrower agribusiness partners to cultivate maize and other crops. The high yielding varieties and efficient fertilizers used in the programme more than doubled their yields. This resulted in the indirect engagement of 62,000 additional youth, as grain aggregators, transporters and marketers.

Also Mr. President, the Programme implemented three Greenhouse projects in the southern and mid-belt of the country. This resulted in the creation of various youth jobs and a highly thought-through arrangement for the trainees to acquire agro-technological skills in Israel. From 51 and 75 students who participated in the 11-month paid internship in 2018 and 2019 respectively, the programme has more than doubled student participation.

I am happy to announce that two hundred (200) trainees are embarking on the Israeli internship this year 2021 alone. The increase in the numbers is due to the high reputation gained by the Ghanaian trainees in Israel due to their hard work, discipline and the mentoring arrangements put in place by the Ministry before departure.

Back from Israel, the trainees are assisted by the Ministry to develop agribusiness plans and to seek support for their own private agribusinesses. The returnees who arrived this year are being assisted to develop their own businesses in the Dawhenya and Bawjiase greenhouse villages for vegetable production.

Further, Mr. President, the Ministry is working assiduously to collaborate with the private sector and other development partners through its agribusiness unit to facilitate the growth of agribusiness through technical support. Following the high premium placed on agribusiness the Ministry is considering elevating its agribusiness unit into a full Directorate, to reflect the current priority. The Directorate of Women in Agriculture of this Ministry is also working tirelessly with our partners in the private sector and Non- Governmental Organisations, to support women groups in their agribusiness ventures.

Now Mr. President, it is certainly not out of place on an important occasion such as this to thank our partners for their immense support and contribution to the development of agriculture.

In the area of agribusiness, I wish to recognise the support and collaboration with the Canadian government to transform our colleges of agriculture, into Centres of Excellence. This has been possible through the development of new curriculum for training middle level manpower, and the modernisation of college infrastructure. The curriculum is designed to instill the spirit of entrepreneurship and business orientation in trainees, as part of building their relevance in the new business environment.

Finally, Mr. President, let me use this opportunity to thank all institutions that responded to our call to support this year’s National Farmers Day Celebrations. Our headline sponsor the Agriculture Development Bank and other major sponsors such as Exim Bank and Stanbic Bank also deserve special mention for their invaluable support to the success of this year’s Farmers’ Day Celebration. You have done it in the past, done it today and will surely do it next year. I thank you for your attention and I wish our farmers and fishers a memorable celebration.

Long live the Farmers and Fishers of this country!

Long live Ghana!

Our partners: Best Essay Writing Service