USAID commits US$ 7 million to support Ghanaian smallholder farmers
As part of moves to address the bottlenecks associated with small scale farmers in rural Ghana, the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID) through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is committing about US$ 7 million to provide vital support for the farmers.
The funds which will be disbursed in two tranches through a designed cash transfer is targeting about 17,000 farm households in selected districts in the regions of the north.
The Representative and Country Director of World Food Programme Ghana, Barbara Clemens highlighted the essence of the programme.
“Starting in June, 17,000 targeted productive smallholder farmers in 163 communities and 17 districts in Northern Ghana will be assisted with MoMo cash transfers to mitigate the risks of shocks and loss of productive assets due to input prices caused by inflation,” she said.
“During this lean season, from June to August 2023, farmers will use these transfers to buy the inputs and food they need, when they need them,” she added.
“Let me emphasize the who and where of this initiative. Productive ( and the key word is productive) smallholder farmers in Northern, Northeast, Upper East and Upper West were targeted to receive this assistance because they are in USAID’s zone of influence,” she noted.
On his part, the Deputy Minister for Ministry of Food and Agriculture in charge of Crops, Yaw Frimpong Addo indicated that the Farmer Support Activity project is in line with government phase two of the planting for food and jobs which seeks to shift agriculture activities from the subsistence to commercial terrain.
“This project we are launching today there’s a component in the new PFJ chapter two which will be launched latest by early next month.It is a 5 year program and it is about commercial agriculture which focuses on from input subsidy to input credit,” he said.
Source: Ghana Business
