Agricultural project to enhance farmers' income

Mr Roy Ayariga, the National Coordinator of the Ghana Agricultural Sector Investment Programme (GASIP), says the project would promote different crop varieties that would help farmers increase production and their incomes on sustainable basis.

The project would guide farmers to produce crop varieties based on market demand and this could be achieved when small holder farmers become more competitive in terms of price, time and quantity produced, Mr Ayariga said.

Mr Ayariga who has also worked on the Northern Regional Growth Programme, said this when he presented modalities and implementation strategies of GASIP, an agricultural value chain programme designed to be private sector- led and demand- driven in nature, to stakeholders in Bolgatanga.

The Programme Coordinator said previous projects have not fared well because farmers failed to make money due to high production costs and lack of market.

He said GASIP is a 113.0- million dollar package funded by the Government and the International Fund for Agriculture Development, was designed to go in two phases for the next six years.

He said due to the wider coverage of the programme, the Ministry of food and Agriculture also needs co financiers from the private sector to make the expected impact.

He said GASIP gave priority to rural young people from 25- 34 years because they are the future leaders of the country.

The women were also selected because of their continuous contribution to the agricultural sector.

The programme aims at upscaling successful interventions to ensure that it reaches all value chain actors.