Hon. Collins Ntim,Deputy Minister of Local Government
The government is set to launch two new initiatives; Planting For Export And Rural Development(PERD), and the District Centre For Agric Commerce And Technology (DCACT) to argument existing flagship program Planting For Food.
This, according to Hon. Collins Ntim, Deputy Minister of Local Government in charge of rural development, the two initiatives is to increase Ghana's revenue exportation of agriculture products.
'The government will also support each district financially to train youth in basic modern Agronomic practices under the PERD imitative and the District Centre For Agric Commerce And Technology (DCACT)", he revealed
“It is expected that about three to five million farmers would be supported, registered, and a biometric database of all the farmers and their farms/plantation would be established”
“Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies [MMDAs] will come out with an agricultural project initiative with one or two identified cash crops where support between Ten Thousand (10,000) and Twenty Thousand (20,000) are going to be given to farmers to cultivate an average of 10 acres of the crops within the next four to ten"
According to Hon. Collins Ntim, the government aims to support cash crop growers under PERD to increase production where farm products will be bought directly from the source for exportation.
"The DCACT will also promote the agribusiness potentials in the various districts where raw materials needed to feed One-district-one factory will be provided”, Hon. Collins Ntim during a working visit to some farming communities in the Western Region explained to farmers.
According to the Deputy Minister, plans are far advanced by the government in putting pragmatic measures in place to ensure cash crops Ghanaian farmers are bought and sold under two new initiative PERD and DCACT.
