The Vice President, Professor Naana Opoku-Agyemang, says the government is committed to addressing the numerous challenges confronting agriculture in the country in order to limit food importation and ensure farmers produce adequate food locally.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang said farmers were faced with irregular rainfall patterns, market instability, and post-harvest losses, and that the government had placed emphasis on agricultural transformation and security at the centre of the country’s development agenda.
She said as a result, the ‘Feed Ghana Programme’ was being rolled out with tangible support, including significant allocation in vegetable development projects and the strategic policy to promote poultry, popularly known as the “Akoko Nkitinti” programme.
According to the Vice President, 5,000 graduates in agriculture and veterinary sciences would be deployed across the country, including the Volta Region, to work closely with farmers and provide agricultural extension services to help increase their yields.
The Vice President said this when she addressed a grand durbar of chiefs and people of the Asogli Traditional Area in Ho over the weekend to climax the 2025 TeZa (yam festival).
It was on the theme: “Together in honesty and purpose, we build a just, peaceful and prosperous nation.” The event was attended by Ewe traditional rulers from the Republic of Togo, Benin, Nigeria and chiefs across Ghana.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang said the agriculture graduates would share new agricultural practices with farmers and ensure that research outcomes were put into practice. She urged the youth to take advantage of available opportunities in agriculture and learn from experienced farmers so they could take agriculture as a business.
She said special attention would be given to vegetable farming, in which the Volta Region had a comparative advantage. She also mentioned urban and rural agriculture initiatives, including irrigation, which could enhance food production in the region for both local consumption and export.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang further stressed the need for farmer cooperatives, which would be supported to ensure that smallholder farmers could pool resources, reduce costs and access better markets for their produce.
The Agbogbomefia of the Asogli Traditional Area, Togbe Afede XIV, said honesty and truth were crucial in addressing the problem of corruption in the country, adding that the country should be guided by the national pledge.
Togbe Afede announced that over the past 22 years of his reign, he had brought significant changes in youth development, governance and women’s empowerment, which led to the development of the area.
He bemoaned the high levels of corruption at the national level over the past years, adding that corruption and poverty had become synonymous with the name Ghana, not only in the civil service but in almost all sectors of the country.
The chief said: “Most Ghanaians are religious but we fail to accept the truth, and there is the need for all of us to stop glorifying corruption.”
From Samuel Agbewode, Ho
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