The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) is to approve a $60-million concessionary loan to support the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs programme in the northern part of the country.

The financial support is expected to impact about 500,000 farmers in the north, starting from the next farming season.

It will also help increase food production and create more jobs, especially in the northern savannah area where agricultural activities are limited to peasant farming.

AfDB technical consultative meeting

The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, told the Daily Graphic in an interview that the board of directors of the bank was currently considering the government’s proposal for financial support submitted to the bank about six months ago.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a technical consultative meeting on the AfDB's Transformation of the African Savannah Initiative (TASI) in Accra last Friday.

“The AfDB is interested in supporting farmers in the northern savannah, just like this TASI project. So the money will be used purposely for farmers in the savannah to help increase the reach of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme,” he said.

TASI

The two-day technical meeting was attended by investors from Brazil and Argentina and experts in agriculture from the AfDB, some academic institutions, civil society groups, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).

The SADA is supporting the Agric Ministry to implement the pilot phase of TASI, a special project aimed at transforming Africa’s vast savannah into an agricultural growth pole.

The pilot project is to be implemented in Ghana and seven other African countries where the savannah has virtually been idle, in spite of its potential for investments.

It is expected that the outcome of the pilot project will be replicated in the other 25 African countries that host about 400 million hectares of the savannah zone.

Indictment

Dr Akoto commended the AfDB for choosing Ghana as one of eight countries where the pilot phase of the TASI project would be undertaken and further assured them of the government's commitment to make the project a success.

Given the agricultural potential of Ghana’s savannah, he said, it was an indictment on the country that nothing tangible had been done to help exploit the potential.

He said the government would also adapt the TASI project into its own policies and programmes to transform the savannah zone.

Savannah bread basket

A 2002 World Food Prize Laureate and lecturer at the University of Florida, Prof. Pedro A. Sanchez, observed that Ghana’s savannah zone could become a bread basket if given the needed support.

While admitting that challenges with rainfall, soil nutrition and social issues made it difficult to farm in the area, he said evidence from other countries showed that such challenges could be addressed to help open the area up for investment.

“Ghana, as a country, has a positive environment that many countries do not have. If we put the pieces together, we will go far and we are ready to support in whatever way possible,” he said.

Source: Daily Graphic