Mr. Kwesi Ahwoi,Food and Agriculture Minister briefing the Press The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has announced government's readiness to employ over sixty `thousand people under the newly introduced Youth In Agricultural Programme (YIA).
The initiative is also expected to produce over 41,000 tonnes of food product including cassava, maize, sorghum, millet as well as cash crops like cocoa, rubber and cotton to ensure food sufficiency in the country.
In pursuance of this, the Ministry has already held talks with identified chiefs and opinion leaders in various communities across the country to release lands to be cultivated by their own unemployed youth.
Interacting with the media at the meet-the- press series in Accra, The sector Minister, Kwesi Ahwoi, explained that 14,000 hectares of land has been earmarked for the production of staple food, notably, rice, maize, plantain, cassava and cash crops in the northern and the southern belt.
Mr Ahwoi said ten agricultural institutions have been identified and requested to submit proposals for the allocation of tractors and accessories. The institutions include KNUST, Pong-Tamale and Kwadaso Agric College among others.
The move, according to the Minister, will go a long way to make agricultural practice more lucrative to the youth and boost production, stressing that it will also help curb rural-urban migration.
On Livestock Development Project, the Minister said that fifty 50,000 improved breeds of small ruminant will be brought from Mali, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Denmark (specifically pigs) and distributed to farmers throughout the country.
Responding to questions on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and European Union (EU) Programmes on Agriculture, Mr Ahwoi noted that local farmers will be given the needed exposure, training and re-training to be abreast with standards of the international market so as to compete favourably.
The Ministry also reacted on the current outbreak of anthrax in the Upper-East region, saying that mass vaccination exercise is currently underway and this will be done annually to rid the region of the disease.
Touching on the fisheries sub-sector, the sector Minister disclosed that two out of six patrol boats have been bought from China to complement the efforts of the Ghana Navy in protecting Ghana's territorial waters while the current Canoe registration and numbering programme will enforce fisheries laws and discipline among fisher-folks.
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