by Justice Lee Adoboe
ACCRA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The government of Ghana will continue to create the enabling environment for the food production sector to generate the needed jobs, Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture Kennedy Osei Nyarko said Friday.
Speaking at the launching of the Ghana International Food and Beverage Festival, the deputy minister was hopeful that this would bring a lot of relief to Ghanaians.
"Farm produce will be readily processed into other forms of products by off-takers thereby creating employment and improve livelihoods as well," the official noted.
Post-harvest losses due to unimproved value-chain have been the major setback for farmers in Ghana, whose economy depends heavily on agriculture.
The official said the government would pay particular attention to crops like copra, in which Ghana possessed the comparative advantage, to create multi-million-dollar industries.
To that end, he said the government intended to take the lead in cultivating 4 million hectors of selected tree crops including oil palm, cashew, Shea and citrus over the next three years.
Food crop production has remained largely at the peasant level as financial institutions find it difficult to finance the sector, citing the risks involved.
"We need the right policies today in order to attract the investors into the agriculture sector. Because of the risks involved you need certain policies that can reduce the risks to the minimum," said Thomas Wabi Bello, an industrialist and a prime mover of the festival slated for December.
Sometimes, he explained, the government did not need to put its money into agriculture per se to make it work, "but if you put the right policies in place with the right incentives the banks will be willing to finance agriculture." Enditem
