Agribusiness forum showcases potential of SADA
An agribusiness forum aimed at showcasing the agricultural investment potentials in the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) ecological zone has been held in Tamale, the Northern Regional Capital.
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The forum, organised by the Ghana Commercial Agriculture Project (GCAP), a government of Ghana initiative, sought to encourage large-scale agricultural production in the SADA zone.
It brought together major key players in the agricultural value chain including farmers, financial institutions, dealers in agricultural machinery, agro-chemical dealers, agro-processors, among others.
Some farmers who had been supported by GCAP to expand their agricultural activities also shared their success stories at the forum which was on the theme: "Exploiting the opportunities of Agribusiness development in the SADA Zone."
GCAP, is a Government of Ghana initiative and jointly funded by the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at an estimated cost of US$145 million. It is being implemented under the auspices of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).
The project seeks to ensure increased access to secured lands, private sector finance, input and output markets by smallholder farms from PPPs in commercial agriculture in the SADA zone and Accra Plains.
GCAP had also been designed to remove binding constraints faced by investors in the agriculture sector such as land development, storage infrastructure, irrigation, electricity and road infrastructure through matching grant support schemes.
Public Private Partnerships to promote agriculture
Speaking at the forum in Tamale, the Zonal Project Co-ordinator of GCAP, Mr Stephen Debre, disclosed that the Public Investment Division of the Ministry of Finance was providing GCAP with the needed technical support to undertake Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the agricultural sector.
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Under the PPP arrangements, he said, GCAP would finance the rehabilitation and construction of agricultural storage infrastructure and processing facilities in the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) ecological zone.
Mr Debre disclosed further that the project was making substantial investment in irrigation systems and infrastructure to support farmers including women in the SADA zone to go into all-year-round farming, adding that smallholder farmers were also being supported to acquire lands to expand their agricultural activities.
GCAP supports GIPC
He said GCAP was also providing the needed support to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) to develop a strategic plan for the agricultural sector, carry out research on the investment climate in agriculture and develop the capacity of GIPC staff for commercial agriculture investors.
GCAP, he said, was working to develop land banks that would help attract investors. Such lands would be thoroughly screened to ensure that they were made with the informed consent of participating communities; that there were no objections from within the community, especially among land users and the vulnerable in those societies.
The Chief Director of MOFA, Mr Maurice Abilsa-Seidu, said government would continue to put in place the necessary measures to promote agriculture in the country by creating the enabling environment for all actors in the sector to exploit.
Mr Abilsa-Seidu said the government had not abolished the fertiliser subsidy programme and it was going to be rolled out next year (2015) as efforts were being made by the government to settle the amount owed suppliers under the programme.
A former Presidential Candidate of the Convention People's Party (CPP) and an Agronomist, Dr Abu Sakara Foster, who chaired the forum, allayed the fears of smallholder farmers in the country that the commercialisation of agriculture and the promotion of large-scale farming in the country would push them out of the sector.
The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, in an address read on his behalf, called on investors to take advantage of the large tracts of agricultural lands in the region to invest in large-scale farming, especially in the area of rice cultivation, which the region has a huge potential and the agro-processing sector to add value to farmers’ produce.