Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, says the government remains committed to addressing challenges confronting the agriculture sector.
He said although prices of foodstuffs and fertilizer had risen across the globe, it was due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the war between Russia and Ukraine over which the government had very little control.
Dr Akoto was speaking to members of the Dormaa Poultry Farmers Association at a meeting at Dormaa-Ahenkro in the Dormaa Central Municipality of the Bono Region.
The meeting provided a platform for the Minister and his team to interact with the farmers and share ideas for the growth of the poultry industry in the area.
Dr Akoto expressed the government’s determination to promote farmers’ businesses, hence the government launched the Planting for Food and Jobs (PfFJs) programme in April 2017 at Goaso in the Ahafo Region to promote the cultivation of food crops, including maize and soya bean, two vital ingredients for the production of poultry feed.
The Agriculture Minister stated, “there is no shortage of maize in the country as being speculated around”, stressing “people from Niger and Nigeria were coming to Ghana to purchase maize”.
Dr Akoto said “last year, Ghana produced 3.1 million metric tonnes of maize”, saying it was unprecedented because the country had never produced more than 1.8 metric tonnes of maize.”
By Robert Tachie Menson, GNA
