Stakeholders in Kassena-Nankana hold agriculture policy forum

An agriculture policy sensitization forum has been held at Navrongo in the Upper East Region to diagnose challenges facing the sector and come out with effective solutions.

The forum which was supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Ghana and the Agricultural Development and Value Chain Advancement (ADVANCE) programme, brought together major stakeholders in Agriculture from the area.

Mr. Festus Kwadzokpo, Capacity Building coordinator, USAID Agricultural Policy Support Project, in a presentation highlighted on the five-year Agriculture Policy Support Project (APSP) saying it had a goal to improve food security-enabling environment for private sector investment in agriculture.

Mr Kwadzokpo who did the presentation together with Mr Roland Akabzaa, a representative of ADVANCE, indicated that in collaboration with other development partners such as Feed the Future (FtF) project, APSP would support the policy agenda of the Government of Ghana,(GoG ), especially the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to implement the Medium-term Agriculture Sector Investment Plan (METASIP) and to strengthen local research capacities to contribute to policy processes.

He said APSP would also support policy advocacy efforts of Civil Society Organizations, including Farmers Based Organizations (FBOs) through three components, namely policy formation and implementation, policy research and policy advocacy.

Mr Kwadzokpo, in an interview later said the forum aimed at bringing agricultural policy to the doorsteps of farmers, introduce and expose them to the policy and enable them amplify their voice with help from the media.

He noted that the overall objective of the policy was to put a stop to global hunger and ensure food security, modernization of agriculture to increase productivity, and that it required active involvement of major stakeholders in policy making.

He called on the media to disseminate technical information of the agricultural sector to farmers and the general public and urged various stakeholders to liaise and arrive at practicable solutions to curb the problems in the municipality.

The Kassena- Nankana municipality is one of the 13 Districts of the Upper East Region that has vast farm lands with over 60 per cent of the people undertaking farming as a main source of employment.

Challenges facing the Municipality include poor rainfall pattern and silted dugouts, which are being tackled through local strategies such as tree planting and dry season farming.