The newly constituted board of the Twifo Oil Palm Plantation (TOPP)has been inaugurated in Accra.
The members are Mr George Oduro, who is the chairman, Oseadeeyo Kwesi Kennin IV, David KloteyCollison, Kwaku Oppong-Duah and Faris Elias Attricke.
The rest are Dr John Ampontuah Kumah, Richard Twumasi-Ankrah, Prof.YirenkyiDanquah, Daniel KojoNyame, AbenaNtrakwah-Mensah and SekarRamamoorthy.
Inaugurating it, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, DrOwusuAfriyieAkoto, saidthe inauguration was in line with the government’s strategy of diversifying the Ghanaian economy.
To this end, he said, the Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA), was working to position the country to earn $16 billion from six selected tree crops annually in the next eight to 10 years.
The crops are cashew, oil palm, shea, coconut, mango and rubber.
These crops he said, were being promoted under the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) programme aimed at diversifying the overreliance on cocoa as a major export commodity with an annual income of $2 billion.
He said“Already the TCDA is making a huge impact on farmers in determining a minimum price for cashew in the Bono, Ahafo and Bono East regions although in its infancy. Last time I checked it was GH¢9 per kilogramme.
“It has an ambitious target of lifting the $2 billion from cocoa to $16 billion with the six crops in the next eight to 10 years. By the end of 2020, a total of 22 million seedlings of the six selected crops had been distributed. Ghanaian farmers have demonstrated their commitment to come along in this new development,” he said.
Dr Akoto noted that the TOPP was very much part of that scheme of things, because TOPP was in the second module of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme which is PERD.
The government and Unilever entered into a partnership to transform the TOPP into a world-class and sustainable oil palm plantation.
Under the partnership, TOPP and the government will work together by committing more investments into the development and expansion of the plantation, support smallholder farmers and also adopt strategies to ensure the plantation improves its impact on the economy.
The chairman of the board, MrOduro, assured of the members’ readiness to serve as part of the vision to help transform the country’s agriculture.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
