Mr John Dramani Mahama, Former President and Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has promised to establish Farmer Service Centres to improve on agricultural production if elected President on December 7.
He said the Centres would provide fertilizers, farmer inputs, seeds and services to farmers on credit during the farming season and to be paid back after harvesting and selling of their produce.
He said the Party’s manifesto, which would be launched this month, had several projects targeted at reducing unemployment, and one of the projects is the establishment of the Farmer Service Centres to support farmers.
Speaking at a durbar of Chiefs and people of Bawku in the Upper East Region, Mr Mahama said they would start with 50 of the Farmer Service Centres at strategic locations for farmers to register at the beginning of the farming season.
“The Farmer Service Centres are going to be a one-stop shop to assist our farmers to be able to increase production. The problem with our economy is that we are an import dependent economy. Even things that we can produce ourselves, we are importing,” he said.
He said Ghana imported rice, tomatoes, fish, and vegetable cooking oil, among others, at the cost of about three billion dollars a year, which could be channeled into other sectors of the economy.
According to the Flagbearer, “The only way we can improve the lives of our people is to make sure that we produce as much as we can ourselves, so that we can have enough food to eat and even export to make foreign currency come into our financial system.”
The Former President recalled that during his Presidency, he cut sod for phase one of the Tamde Irrigation project, saying “We finished phase one, this government continued it very slowly but still, it has not been done.
“The project would bring about 3,000 hectares of land under irrigation so that our young people can do all year round gardening, and do not have to go down south to look for menial jobs,” Mr Mahama said.
He urged Constituents in Bawku to make a change, and that the opportunity to make that change is in the December 7, 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
The Former President, who is on a four-day campaign tour of the Upper East and parts of the North East Regions, was in the company of Professor Joshua Alabi, the Chairman of the campaign team, Mr Mahama Ayariga, MP for the area and Mr Julius Debrah, former Chief of Staff.
The rest were Mr Cletus Apul Avoka, MP for the Zebilla Constituency, Madam Joyce Bawah Mogtari, Spokesperson to the Former President among other Party officials from the national, regional and constituency levels, and Parliamentary Candidates in the six Constituencies within the Kusaug area.
GNA