The Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in charge of Crops, Mr Yaw FrimpongAddo has urged queen mothers in the country who are engaged in agriculture to take advantage of the Planting for Food and Jobs Phase (PFJ) Two to expand and enhance their farming businesses.
According to him, the second phase of the PJF 2 had been targeted at providing input credit to farmers to help address the capital and farm input challenges facing farmers in the country.
Mr Addo disclosed this in Accra on Thursday during the Gathering of the Royals, said what the queen mothers needed to do access the facility was to register their farms in any of the districts they resided.
He said the PJF 2 was focused on ten products such as rice, maize, soy, onion, tomato and poultry to reduce the importation of such products into the country.
Mr Addo said the objective of government was to achieve food sufficiency in rice, tomato, and other food products by 2028 and reduce the importation of such products to the country to ten per cent.
The programme the sixth in the series and organised by Agrihouse Foundation, a non-profit non-governmental organisations was on the theme “Seeds of Change: Cultivating Gender Equality in Agriculture and Honouring Women’s Advancement.”
It brought together queen mothers across the country to discuss agriculture and to elicit their inputs and views on how the sector can be developed and also honour them for their contributions to the development of agriculture.
As part of the programme, a former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings was honoured for the role she has played in women empowerment in the country.
Also, there was a panel for eight queen mothers who discussed an array of issues on agriculture and its value chain and challenges facing them in their agriculture ventures and an exhibition to showcase some products and foodstuffs produced locally by women farmers and agribusiness operators.
They raised issues such as lack of capital, high cost of farm inputs, difficulty in acquiring land, poor road infrastructure to farming communities as some of the challenges facing them.
The Deputy Minister who delivered the keynote address said women played critical role in agriculture and government was committed to the challenges facing women farmers in the country.
“There is a project as part of the PFJ 2 to address the poor road infrastructure in the food growing and farming communities in the country,” Dr Frimpong stated.
He commend Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings for contributions to women empowerment and Agrihouse Foundation for the role it was playing to promote and agribusiness in the country.
The Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana AkyaaAkosa said her outfit initiated the programme six years ago to engage queen mothers in dialoguesconversations, action-oriented discussions and collectively find common working grounds to lead the advancement of agriculture.
She said the programme had achieved some major strides and impacts such as the successful facilitation of extension support services and officers to communities that were initially, not receiving support, with support by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
She expressed gratitude to all the companies and organisations which supported the programme.
The Chief of Adidome, Togbe Kwasinyisin his remarks saidentreated the government to address the challenges facing farmers to boost food production in the country.
He lauded Agrihouse Foundation for initiating the Gathering of Royals to bring queen to make their voices heard on agriculture.
Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings for her part expressed gratitude to Agrihouse Foundation for awarding her and paid glowing tribute to queen mothers for their contributions to food production in the country, stressing that the story of agriculture could not be told without queen mothers.
The President of the Queen Mothers Foundation of Ghana, Nana AmaSerwaaBonsusaid the Gathering of the Royals was not merely an event, but a proof to the collective dedication of Queen mothers who were the pillars of strength within their communities.
“It is a platform where wisdom is shared, experiences are exchanged, and innovative solutions are cultivated to address the challenges facing our agricultural landscape,” Nana Serwaa Bonsu stated.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
