The Minister for Food and Agriculture has revealed that Ghana’s agricultural sector will receive a CAD 100 million and €160 million from the Government of Canada and the European Union respectively, beginning 2016.
According to the honourable minister, over the last decade, development partners have also invested a total of $850 million into the agricultural sector. These investments, he said, are part of efforts being made by international development agencies, individual countries and global alliances to scale up the level of investment in agriculture.
“Investment by our development partners also significantly increased over the last decade. To mention a few, the government of Canada supported the sector with over CAD 285 million with a pipeline project of CAD $ 100 million to start in 2016. The World Bank over the same period invested $282 million, IFAD about $364 million, AfDB and USAID, under the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future Initiative are $ 210 million. The European Union is planning to invest over Euros 160 million beginning 2016. There are several other investments and technical cooperation activities with other development partners such as GIZ, AfDB, JICA, FAO, AGRA, WFP, which we duly acknowledge”, Honourable Kwetey said.
He stressed that with the existing agricultural challenges known to many, the Ghana Agricultural Sector investment Programme (GASIP), which is a flagship programme that introduces new way of engagement and programming in the sector, was a step in the right direction.
Mr. Kwetey, explained that with its flexible and programmatic approach, GASIP provides opportunity for consistent and long term investment in programme activities that demonstrates success.
Ghana Agriculture Sector Investment Programme (GASIP) is a sector wide national framework designed to support agri-business development in Ghana. It is a programme of the Government of Ghana supported by the International Fund for Agric Development (IFAD) and implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).
With its sector wide approach, GASIP provides opportunity for all stake holders to review the programme every three years to inform the next phase of activities.
