By: Benjamin Attah Agyemang
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has initiated a move to facilitate the transportation of foodstuffs from farm gates to marketing centers. The move is to reduce the increasing cost of food prices in the country.
The Sector Minister, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, disclosed this when he toured the Western North Region, to assess the food carting exercise. He said the evacuations of foods from the farm gates to marketing centers will help stem inflation.
Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto hinted that evacuations of foods from the farm gates to marketing centers has become critical to ensure a stable inflation rate in the country. His comment follows a report from the Western North Regional Directorate of MOFA, indicating abundance of foodstuffs in the Region, which needed to be carted to the cities.
The Minister said containers will be placed at the headquarters of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Accra, detailing the various foodstuffs from the districts to be sold to the public at a reduced cost.
During a visit to the rice farm at New Agogo in the Bia West District, the spokesperson for the farmer’s group “Boafo Ne Nyame Farmers Association”, Madam Rose Asagila, appealed to the minister to help the Association acquire the needed farming inputs to enable members to engage in an all year round rice production.
The Chief of the community, Nana Donkor, was grateful to the minister for his visit and appealed to the government to help improve the road network in the area to ensure easy evacuation of farm produce to the marketing centers.
Dr. Afriyie Akoto also took the opportunity to visit some cocoa farms at Aboagyekrom near Sefwi Asawinso to assess the progress on the government’s Cocoa Rehabilitation Initiative. Some of the farmers expressed their excitement about the programme.
Some cocoa farmers at Aboagyekrom, shared their joy at the initiative to facilitate the even distribution of foodstuff across the country.
