Government targets food security for the next five years

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has outlined plans to introduce a new Input Credit System for farmers to increase agricultural production and ensure food security in the next five years.

Under the new system, which is set to commence next month pending the approval of the Cabinet, farmers will be provided with input support to reduce the cost of agricultural production by about 85 per cent.

"This will help the farmers save capital from increasing production and helping ensure food security for the next five years,” the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Byran Acheampong, noted at the launch of the Sustain Africa Initiative in Tema last Friday.

The Initiative is a crisis response and resilience initiative aimed at improving Africa's availability, affordability and effective and sustainable use of fertilizers. It was founded by Rabobank, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), International Fertilizer Association (IFA), and the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP).

The minister explained that the new system would replace the current subsidy programme, which catered for only 15 per cent of the production cost of farmers.

He indicated that while the programme would ultimately benefit about 3.5 million farmers in the country, it would start with large-scale farmers and would later be rolled out to multi-crop mixed farmers.

The minister, who is also the MP for Abetifi in the Eastern Region, added that it was essential to have a comprehensive but strategic rollout of the system to ensure that farming and farming activities were well organized so that they could play their desired role in the country’s food security inventory.

He stated that one of the critical goals of the programme was to encourage more people, especially the youth, to go into agriculture. In this regard, he said the programme aimed at lowering the entry barrier into agriculture.

He indicated that the government had selected poultry and ten crops for its food security strategy, each with its unique strategy, target and plan.

Mr Acheampong further indicated that the ministry had partnered with ETG. This global company provides inputs to farmers and is also a partner of the Sustain Africa Initiative for the programme.

He said the ministry would provide the necessary facilitation to ETG to enable them to provide fertilizers and seeds to farmers, adding that ETG will get paid after the planting season. “The crops will be traded at the Ghana Commodity Exchange, and delays in payments will be a thing of the past," he stated. He thanked the management of ETG for their support of the agric sector in the country.

The minister said the programme would contribute significantly towards reducing the prices of some fertilizers, some by about 30-50 per cent, and would also allow farmers to get the fertilizers they want at more affordable prices.

He urged other fertilizer producers to emulate ETG and reduce the prices of their fertilizers. “Let us bring the prices of fertilizer down so that farmers can benefit, and prices will be low and stable for food security, resilience and availability," he appealed.