Business News of Tuesday, 4 June 2019
Source: www.ghanaweb.com
2019-06-04
Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister for Food and Agriculture
Minister for Food and Agriculture, Owusu Afriyie Akoto has said that Ghana will see ten percent growth in agriculture within the next three years.
According to the minister, the previous administration saw huge decline in agriculture growth, which was said to be 2.2% but for the past two years government has delivered a massive increase of 8%.
With much efforts under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the agric sector is confident of targeting a double digit growth.
“We are targeting double digit growth in agriculture, we intend to grow at 10 percent. The previous administration drove it down to 2.2% and even less. We come in two years and we brought it to 8%. We are hoping in the next two or three years it will get into double digits, 10% and above.” He said.
Speaking at the launch of the Agricbusiness Innovation and Technology Summit, the minister indicated that the essence of Planting for Food and Jobs is to increase agricultural productivity of Ghanaian farmers, which is at the heart of government’s policy.
The summit is carefully designed to offer interested Ghanaian companies in the agricultural sector, the opportunity to learn, interact and build business relationships with 18 top leading Israeli Agri-Tech innovators entering the Ghanaian market.
The theme for this year’s event, “Ghana Grows with Israel (GHrow-IL) Agritech Summit 2019”, focuses on three areas; Input Technologies, Mordern Agronomic Practices, Financing Models in Agricbusiness and will offer both Israel and Ghana opportunities to develop and build new ties through the agricultural value chain especially with the government Ghana’s Planting for Food and Jobs’ agenda.
The Israeli Ambassador to Ghana Shani Cooper, noted that Ghana has the right soil and perfect climate condition for good agriculture and with the help of the Israeli AgriTech companies, the country will progress and export quality products.
“Ghana has the right soil and the right conditions and climate. In other to do good with agriculture, we don’t see any reason why Ghana would be a less progressed than other countries in the world and you definitely think that Ghanaian farmers with the help of the Israeli companies and Israeli know-how and technologies be able to progress and export their yields and crops to the world.” She said.
