Farmers urged to form cooperatives to benefit for MCA support

The Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Account, Martin Esson-Benjamin, has advised farmers to form co-operative groups to enable them to benefit from loans under the Millennium Challenge Accounts.

Briefing the Fanteakwa District Assembly at Begoro, Mr. Esson-Benjamin said each group should comprise about 50 farmers and could receive a minimum of GH¢1,000.
He added that all groups would undergo training in record keeping before the loan would be granted.

Mr. Esson-Benjamin said the MCA is to transform the agricultural sector with emphasis on food crops and horticultural produce and explained that cocoa farmers, fishermen and livestock farmers are exempted from the package.

He said the project is demand driven and meant to complement the district budget in the medium term in the 23 beneficiary districts nationwide.

Mr Esson-Benjamin said zonal advisory committees would be formed to monitor the implementation of the programme and explained that the programme would operate in conjunction with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and that a US$15m support had been released to the sector to reach out to farmers.

He noted that land acquisition and registration have been major challenges confronting Ghanaian farmers, saying the programme has set aside US$12m to assist farmers to register farmlands to avoid litigation.