Japan to give 8 billion cedi food aid grant to Ghana

Ghana and Japan on Thursday signed and exchanged notes on an 18 billion-cedi Japanese food aid for Ghana. Under the agreement, rice would BE imported to meet increasing domestic demand, complement the country's self-help efforts to meet food demand and also contribute to improving Ghana's balance of payment position.

Proceeds from the sale of the rice would be accumulated as counter-value fund by the government of Ghana for the implementation of social development projects including those related to increasing food production.

The agreement is for 2001 as the Japanese financial year is from April to March. Mr Motoyoshi Noro, the Charge d'Affaires at the Japanese Embassy, signed for Japan and Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Minister of Foreign Affairs, signed for Ghana.

Mr Noro said the Japanese government was pleased with efforts of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to increase rice production to reduce imports by 30 per cent by 2004. He said the agricultural sector was one of the target areas of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy and Japanese Co-operation with Ghana.

He added that one of the remarkable Japanese contributions to the sector was the Small-Scale Irrigated Agriculture Promotion Project (SSIAPP). Under the SSIAPP, Japanese experts in collaboration with their Ghanaian counterparts have been supporting small-scale farmers to modernise farming systems and to reactivate farmers associations at Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region and Okyereko in the Central Region.

He expressed the hope that the experiences at Ashaiman and Okyereko would be shared with farmers in other regions as a manifestation of Japan's project-type technical co-operation. Mr Owusu-Agyemang thanked the Japanese government for the grant and said the rice that would be made available through the grant would in the interim break the gap between consumption and local production.

He said the government was working assiduously to increase the production of rice and other cereals to make up for the shortfall and said it was the avowed aim of the government to make the country self-sufficient in food production so that it would no longer become a receiver of food aid. Mr Owusu-Agyemang gave Japan the assurance that proceeds from the grant would be transparently used and accounted for to maintain the good faith that "Japan has in us".