The Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Account, Mr Martin Benjamin, has advised farmers to form co-operative groups to enable them benefit from loans under the Millennium Challenge Account.

Briefing the Fanteakwa District Assembly at Begoro on Friday, Mr Benjamin said each group should comprise about 50 farmers and could receive a minimum loan of ten million cedis.

The latest project in the district is structured for all groups to undergo training in record keeping before the loan would be granted.

The MCA is a global investment funded by the US to support the development drives of developing countries, especially in the area of agriculture with emphasis on food crops and horticulture.

Cocoa farmers, fishermen and livestock farmers are however exempted from the package.

Mr Benjamin said the project was demand driven and meant to complement the district budget in the medium term in the 23 beneficiary districts nationwide.

As part of the programme, zonal advisory committees would be formed to monitor the implementation of the programme.

The programme is designed to operate in conjunction with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

For now, 15 million dollars in support has been released to the sector to reach out to farmers.

Mr. Benjamin noted that land acquisition and registration had been a major problem confronting Ghanaian farmers, saying the programme had set aside 12 million dollars to assist farmers to register farmlands to avoid litigation.

Only private entrepreneurs would be mandated to buy the farm produce and process them and that the co-operative groups were not to process the produce themselves.

Source: GNA