Ghana: This Sector is Evidently Significant

Why is agriculture so significant? Why does it make sense for Ghana to concentrate on agriculture? What crucial aspects will aid Ghana usher in an agricultural revolution? What are the investment opportunities available in this sector? If you want to be acquainted with the answers of these questions, do follow this article. Food security is an extensive concept, stretching from the household to the national level. It is not identical with food self-sufficiency.

It permits for production to be commenced where the comparative advantage is utmost, and for trade to match domestic food production. Agriculture’s vital role in Ghana’s economy proposes that growth in the sector could stimulate both better general economic development and poverty alleviation. All of the augmented development determinations and endeavours of the government have been pitched towards giving special benefit to fast-track agricultural and aquaculture development through renovation.

The government of Ghana is actually in the process of modernization, including the use of better-quality seed varieties, greater access to tractor services and training of peasant and small holder farmers on productivity enrichments, which has resulted in dramatic increases in maize, rice, and cassava production in the last four years. GCAP is a US$ 145m Government of Ghana project, funded jointly by the World Bank and the USAID with the main motive to enhance the commercial agriculture sector in Ghana. GCAP strive for to increase access to land, private sector finance, and inputoutput markets by smallholder farms, through private-public partnerships in the Accra Plains and Savannah Accelerated Development (SADA) zones in Ghana.

Their foremost ambition is to redefine commercial agriculture in Ghana, by its exclusive designation of the concept of commercial agriculture, which they perceive in terms of economic activities anywhere along the agricultural value chain that have a market orientation. Among other things, GCAP would be undertaking a number of intermediations and matching grants intended at endorsing Ghana’s commercial agriculture revitalization.

The job is positioned to developing large-scale irrigation canals; facilitating land acquisition; supporting and outspreading nucleus investments for the benefit of small-holders and outgrowers, and expanding infrastructure into out-grower lands. As a close friend of Ghana, India has given this country a $150 million line of credit to upkeep the country’s agriculture sector. The fund would go to support the execution of an Agricultural Mechanisation Service Centre (AMSEC), and the projects are envisioned to furnish farmers in the country with reasonable and timely access to farm machinery. Numerous opportunities exist in the processing of agricultural products such as cereals (maize, rice, millet) starchy crops (yam, cassava. Sweet potato, plantain), legumes (carrots, cabbage, garden eggs, tomato), fruits (pineapple, pawpaw, banana, mango), industrial crops (rubber, sugarcane, cotton, oil palm, coconut, cocoa, coffee), livestock (cattle, pigs, poultry, sheep) and fisheries (tuna, tilapia, catfish) and the rearing of silk worm for the production of raw silk. Additionally there is a need for the processing of dairy products as well as the supply of machinery to establish hatcheries for day-old chicks.

Floriculture bids a lot of opportunities as Ghana’s climate and topography make the country suitable for the cultivation of a number of exotic flowers. Species such as heliconia, caribea, celosia, curcuma, gladioli, hibiscus, roses, ornamental palms and ferns perform well under natural conditions. There is potential in the national, regional and European Union markets in the distribution field, companies are called to provide post-production services in transport, packaging and cold vans. There are additional opportunities in standards, training and certification; capacity building for management and market-oriented enterprises; market intelligence research and in the development of agricultural finance and insurance. Investment opportunities exist in the construction of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. Technology and services in the agricultural sector which embrace irrigation, heavy equipment hiring (i.e. hiring of tractors, ploughs, harrows and combine harvesters etc) deliver investment opportunities.

This sector is evidently significant, but its precedence must be mediated by how much real variance it can make to the lives of Ghanaians. The main point to note is that agriculture can be a central sector for inclusive growth in the agriculture-based countries.

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