Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Immediate-past Minister of Food and Agriculture, has instilled confidence in the Tree Crop Sub-Sector has a remedy to Ghana’s financial dependence on the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and other bilateral donors.

According to the Former Minister, Ghana would have been reaping the economic benefits for the prosperity of all had it begun this journey decades ago.

This he said while lecturing on the theme, ‘The Future Of Ghana: Transforming Agriculture For The Prosperity Of All’ at the University of Professional Studies, Accra today, Monday, March 13, 2023.

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, who is also a Flagbearer hopeful of the governing New Patriotic Party(NPP), said the lesson from Ghana’s journey with the IMF and bilateral donors is symbolic of the urgent need to expand the export earning capacity of the economy. This he said can only be accomplished if only the agricultural sector in Ghana can establish that capacity to achieve sustained rapid economic growth in the short to medium term.

“I strongly believe that prioritizing agriculture is a sure way for achieving the accelerated growth needed in the other sectors of the economy and creating the needed jobs for our people. During my tenure as the Minister for Food and Agriculture, I initiated the establishment of the Tree Crop Development Authority under an Act of Parliament, Act 1010 in the year 2019.”
Dr. Afriyie Akoto

Giving an exposé on the ‘Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA)’, seeks to coordinate and promote the development of six tree crops – cashew, rubber, oil palm, coconut, mango and shea, and was established in 2020.

Continuing the lecture on TCDA, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto additionally said:

“The goal of the Authority is to develop, produce and distribute the selected cash crop seedlings to farmers so as to produce and generate a combined potential of export earnings of between $6 to $12 billion per year after 8-10 years of implementation. At their full development, the additional $6-12 billion per year in earnings can complement the less than $2 billion annual earnings from cocoa.”
Dr. Afriyie Akoto

Furthermore, he noted that the TCDA was designed to receive a seed fund of 15million US Dollars in the first three years of its creation. Unfortunately, though, in its 3rd year of operation, it has so far received only $1.3million equivalent to 25% of the capital needed since its establishment in 2020, Dr. Afriyie Akoto added.

Dr. Owusu Afriyie’s contribution towards improving Ghana’s agricultural sector

Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto further disclosed that in Cote D’Ivoire, total annual export earnings from five cash crops – cashew, cocoa, coffee, rubber and palm oil, fetches the economy some US$8 billion every year compared to less than US$2 billion in Ghana. Cote D’Ivoire which started this program decades ago, he noted, has been enjoying these economic benefits of tree crops all these years.

The Former Cabinet Minister also touted some of his achievement while in office including the introduction of the National Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme(NCRP) designed to renew the productive capacity of the cocoa industry.

crops pic — Some cash crops produced in Ghana

The NCRP was launched in 2020 to scale up the promotion and production of Cocoa to provide more income to the economy and farmers and create more jobs. As a result, its successful implementation, thousands of farmers who had abandoned their cocoa farms due to the devastating effect of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus Disease (CSSVD) returned to their farms.

Currently, a total farm area of 56,343 hectares has been fully treated across the cocoa growing regions of Ghana as of 30th September 2022, although not enough, Dr. Afriyie Akoto said.

Also noteworthy, the Former Minister said, is the fact that an important part of the NCHP is to support the private sector to expand local cocoa processing, vigorous promotion to boost domestic and international consumption, and promote market expansion of the export of cocoa products into new markets, thus concluded that the NCRP, when fully implemented should generate more foreign exchange earnings from cocoa.