AGRA Launches “MIRA” In Ghana To Boost Private Sector Investment In Local AgriBusinesses

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, (AGRA), has selected Ghana to benefit from a five-year agricultural project that seeks to compliment government efforts to increase incomes of smallholder farmers through private investment in the sector.

The initiative -Micro Reforms for African Agribusiness (MIRA) – will support government efforts to reform regulations that limit private sector investment in smallholder value chains.

It will also identify, prioritize and reform specific agricultural policies and regulations that currently deter private investment in small- and medium-sized agribusinesses operating in smallholder agricultural value chains.

Over a period of five years, AGRA aims to motivate at least 25 significant policies or regulatory reforms in selected countries, leading to measurable increases in private sector investment in local agribusinesses.

The project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, is expected to increase the number of smallholder farmers accessing improved technologies supplied by agribusinesses operating in local staple food value chains.

In Ghana, there is a lot of policy framework that seeks to increase private sector investment in the agribusiness but the existence of some bottlenecks has made it difficult for a smooth implementation.

Hon. Fiifi Kwettey, Minister of Agriculture, launching the project in Accra on Wednesday said he was expecting the MIRA will help government to unearth the bottlenecks that needs to be unplugged to enhance policies and programmes and their implementations.

He said that, he is happy that Ghana is benefiting and hope it will help accelerate agriculture development with increase in farmers' incomes and enhanced food security and to support the country owned programs.

Dr. Steven Were Omamo,AGRA's Director of Policy and Advocacy speaking at the launch said“The MIRA project will provide government with access to high quality local and international technical assistance for identifying, prioritizing and reforming specific agricultural regulations,”

He said that, MIRA's aim is to add value to the existing policies because the current regulations often discourage private investment in small- and medium-sized agribusinesses that serve the needs of smallholder farmers.

The project will help build the capacity of African Government leaders and analysts to make better-informed, economically-robust assessments and decisions about which regulations need to be reformed in order to facilitate increased private investment in smallholder value chains.

The MIRA project key objectives include;

• To strengthen African governments' demand for regulatory reforms, by supporting efforts to identify and assess regulations that unintentionally limit private sector investment in smallholder value chains;

• To support African governments' efforts to reform regulations that limit private sector investment in smallholder value chains;

• Promoting reformed regulations to local and international private sector investors, in order to raise awareness about improved agribusiness-enabling environments in Africa; and

• Enhancing the capacity and commitment of African governments to continuously review, assess and reform regulations that limit private sector investment in smallholder value chains.