June 21, 2012 By Edward Amartey-Tagoe
Hon. Kwesi Ahowi, Minister of Food and Agriculture
The Government of Ghana continues to affirm its belief that increasing Agricultural Productivity remains Ghana’s best hope of further reducing poverty, hunger and other depravations in spite of Agriculture’s contribution to GDP falling from its historical high levels of more than 40% to 25.6% in 2011(albeit 25.6% of much higher GDP level in both 2011 and the coming years.)
We are happy to note that the G8 and other members of the international community have affirmed that Ghana has demonstrated the importance of food security to development, inclusive economic growth and public-private partnership by awarding Ghana several major international recognitions in the agricultural sector key amongst which are:
i. The Hunger Project’s “1993 Africa Prize for Leadership in the Sustainable End of Hunger” awarded to the then President H.E. Jerry John Rawlings; ii. FAO’s Agricola Medal 2000 for Outstanding Efforts in the Promotion of Sustainable Food Production and the Eradication of Poverty awarded to the then President H.E Jerry John Rawlings and
iii.The “2011 World Food Prize” awarded jointly to former President John A. Kufuor of Ghana and former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil.
In further recognition of these achievements and the need for rapidly expanding public and private investment in agriculture , the G8 in May, 2012 offered Ghana financial and technical support to accelerate the successful implementation of her Medium Term Agricultural Investment Plan (METASIP, 2011-2015) to make Ghana the “Bread Basket” of West Africa”. It is within this context that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) welcomes and supports the Privately Organized 2012 National Food and Agriculture Show (FARGO) under the Theme: “linking farmers to appropriate markets: a value chain process”. The value chain process, which recognizes critical roles played by all stakeholders from input dealers through to on-farm producers to transporters, processors and finally to consumers, is critical to the success of the Government’s efforts at re-orienting Ghanaian agriculture from “production for subsistence to production for markets” to increase greater benefits to all stakeholders along the agricultural value-chain.
I am pleased to invite all stakeholders and the general public to be part of the 4th National Food and Agric Show (FAGRO 2012) from Thursday, August 23 – Saturday, August 25, 2012 at the Efua Sutherland Children’s Park. FAGRO is by far the most important food and agricultural marketing platform in Ghana that brings together an average of one hundred and fifty (150) Exhibitors on an annual basis. Hon. Kwesi Ahowi, Minister of Food and Agriculture stated. My Ministry is committed to improving the efficiency and the ease of doing business through enhanced Public-Private Partnerships in order to increase the value of new private sector investments in the agricultural sector as a whole. It is therefore my expectation that FAGRO will be given the necessary support by all concerned to make Ghanaian Agriculture “one of a kind” in Africa. He added.
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