The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Sagre Bambangi has revealed that 102 warehouses of 1000MT capacity are soon to be completed under the governments’ “One District, One Warehouse” initiatives in attempts to support selected crop products with storage facilities thereby improving the agriculture sector and enhancing food security.

This revelation was made during the Agric Manifestos Forum held today at the Coconut Grove Hotel. The Agric Manifestos Forum was organized by the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) organized with sponsorship from OXFAM, African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), and International Budget Partnership to discuss the agriculture policy positions of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC) manifestos, in addressing the challenges in the Agricultural Value Chain.

Speaking at the forum on the success chalked by the incumbent government, the Deputy Agric Minister for Annual Crops, Hon. Sagre Bambangi who doubles as the MP for Walewale indicated that, the subsidy on fertilizer and seeds has increased to about 50% as compared to the 20-30% in the previous administration, this which has ensured the availability of farm inputs in farming communities at affordable prices.

“As at 2016, the price of subsidized fertilizer, 50kg NPK, was 85 Ghana Cedis. With our subsidy from 2017-2019, as we state now, the price for subsidized fertilizer is 84 Ghana Cedis with all the 10% inflation,” he said.

Giving account on some of the other interventions put in place by government to boost the development of agriculture, the Deputy Minister mentioned that the government has supported the accelerated development of various sectors of the agriculture through the governments’ flagship programmes, ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ and “Rearing for Food and Jobs”. He intimated that with the the Living Income Differential under the Ghana- Cote D’Ivoire co-operation, pioneered by the Akufo Addo led administration, cocoa farmers tend to earn additional income through U$400 per tonne premium on the world price for cocoa.

From the opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) spokesperson on Agriculture, Michael Harry Yanson highlighted how the NDC will address the effect of climate change, herein drought, on crop production in their next administration. He indicated that the opposition party will double the country’s arable land under irrigation from 12% to 24% through private partnership to promote the efficient management of water resources in the country.

Touching on the way forward, the Deputy Agric Minister said the government is currently expanding and rehabilitating the Kpong Left and Right bank Irrigation schemes under the one dam (1V1D) programme to help shift the rain-fed agriculture to irrigation and in turn mitigate the effects of the climate change on crop production and, once completed, 7,690 hectares of land will be put under irrigation.

“We are also thinking about the almighty Pwalugu Multipurpose Dam which is targeted at 24,000 hectares and that is almost twice as what we have now as Public irrigated Lands. This is very significant that is why it is going to be a game changer,” he added.