Create Sub-committees On Agriculture--MMDAs Charged

Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been urged to create a sub-committee on agriculture to enhance the development of the sector for the benefit of all.

Mr Frederick Adimazoya, Knowledge Management and Learning Coordinator of Northern Ghana Governance Activity (NGGA) made the call during a day's training on agricultural reporting for media practitioners in Tamale.

The training, organised by NGGA, brought together participants from Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions, to build their capacity and among others support advocacy campaigns and promote development journalism reportage at the local levels with women groups and civil society organisations (CSOs).

It was also to create an avenue for the media to report on NGGA's achievements through a wide spectrum of communication channels at the local level as well as help journalists to improve data reporting from the portal - Ghanalinks.org.

It was expected that the training would contribute to deepening and improving CSOs and private sector participation in decentralised agricultural development.

Mr Adimazoya said the creation of the sub-committee on agricultural at the MMDAs level would ensure prioritisation of issues of agriculture and budgeting for the sector to enhance its growth and argued that the current structure, where agriculture was put under the Social Services Sub-committees of MMDAs was not good for the development of the sector given that it employed majority of the citizens.

He said 'Since there is no sub-committee on agriculture, there is less budgeting for the sector, which is not good, given that it is the mainstay of many of the residents. The sub-committee on agriculture will discuss key issues affecting the sector leading to finding solutions to them to improve the sector.'

Mr Collins Kyei Boafo, Communication and Media Relations Coordinator of NGGA urged journalists to be passionate about agricultural issues and prioritise them in their work by reporting and discussing such issues to help the sector grow.

The NGGA is a five-year project funded by the United States Agency for International Development and implemented in 28 districts in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions to ensure more responsive governance for improved agricultural development.

GNA
By Albert Futukpor, GNA