Pres outdoors Agric Mechanisation Enterprises Centre at Wulensi

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo last Friday outdoored the Agricultural Mechanisation Enterprises Centre (AMSEC) at Wulensi in the Northern Region, as part of his tour of the region.

At the ceremony, the President presented a number of tractors, power tillers and various farm implements for the establishment of 33 AMSECs in the region, as more are being rolled out across the country.

The objective of the  AMSEC is to enable farmers who cannot afford their own agriculture machinery and other farm implement due to financial constraint, to enable them to  access such service within their reach and at affordable rates. 

The establishment of the AMSEC is seen as a boost to the government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs project meant to increase agricultural productivity, enhance food security, create jobs in the value chain and enhance the incomes of rural folks.

The AMSEC is meant to increase the low number of tractor- to-farmer ratio in the country as well as reduce the drudgery and tediousness associated with old age manual farming system in the country.

Under the AMSEC, the private sector operators are expected to take the lead in the provision of well-organised and commercially viable agriculture, as part of accelerated agriculture mechanisation policy.

According to Ministry of Food and Agriculture, about 90 per cent of farmers in the country are smallholder farmers who still use the rudimentary methods of farming and in order to increase crop yields, there is the need to mechanise the entire farming process as part of the agriculture transformation agenda.    

Agriculture is the main driving force behind Ghana’s economy, accounting for approximately 42 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, employing 54 per cent of workforce.

By Times Reporter