UW districts receive 11 pick-ups to support agric production

The Upper West Region office of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture has taken delivery of 11 new four-wheel drive pick-up vehicles for each of the district offices as logistical support for the Modernising Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) programme.

The pick-ups are to ensure the district offices could access farms in even remote areas so they could deliver relevant services to farmers.

MAG is a five-year budgetary support programme being sponsored by the Canadian government at a total of Can$135 million.

For just 2018, some Can$94.4 is being injected into the local agricultural sector to boost yield and revenue for both farmers and the national economy.

The MAG programme involves technical and logistical support to the Ghanaian agricultural sector to boost crop and livestock production to ensure food security and sufficiency as important incentives for higher profits for farmers.

The package under the programme includes providing 216 pick-ups to all the districts that existed before the latest calibration adjusted the number to 254.

Officials of the programme say it is meant to strengthen and modernise agriculture extension services at the district, regional and national levels to improve production in terms of both quality and quantity of yield to drive up jobs in the agriculture value chain.

It is also aimed at having an agriculture sector that makes a contribution to poverty reduction, food security, structural transformation, and creating jobs.

Presenting the vehicles to the district offices in Wa last Friday, the Minister for the region, Alhaji Sulemana Alhassan, said the district offices would now have no excuse to fail in delivery critical extension services to farmers.

He urged the district agric officers to ensure that the logistical support impacted crop and livestock production to justify the Canadian government’s financial commitment to Ghana.

He said the efforts fed into the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs policy, and requested the district officers to deliver to expectation.

He warned against putting the vehicles to private uses rather than the prescribed official purposes, and said such infractions would not be countenanced.

The regional director of MOFA, Mr Emmanuel Sasu Yeboah, said the vehicles had been delivered in time for the peak of the farming season.