AGRA holds webinar on Ghana’s Agricultural Transformation Journey

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa has organised a webinar to discuss its contribution as well as contributions by its partners to Ghana’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda.

The webinar was a platform for insights from key stakeholders which opened up opportunities to leverage resources and strengthen partnerships to deliver on AGRA’s upcoming strategy for an inclusive, sustainable and resilient food system in Ghana.

The webinar, “The Ghana Agricultural Transformation Journey” gave the government of Ghana, AGRA and key stakeholders an opportunity to reflect on the journey to agricultural transformation in Ghana, over the last five years.

Speaking at the webinar, Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto disclosed that the partnership between the government of Ghana and AGRA has had tremendous impact on the Planting for Food and Jobs.

“In preparing the plan for PFJ, it was during this very difficult time that the investment community doubted the possibility of the initiative. But AGRA came along under the leadership of Dr. Kalibata, the president of AGRA to provide technical assistance to the ministry to develop a-five-year strategic plan for Planting for Food and Jobs.”

“The strategic module for food security consist of the four investment buckets; improved seeds, application of fertilizer, extension services to the small holders, markets and e-agriculture. For us, AGRA was the only partner who understood our vision, what it takes and how to actualize the vision,” Dr. Akoto revealed.

Dr. Agnes Kalibata, President for AGRA, said her outfit’s new agenda is to end hunger in Africa by 2030.

“We’re finishing our 2021 strategy which ends and we’re pivoting into a new strategy. We’ve been on this journey with you and in fact Ghana has been a defining factor for us, we’ve been learning with you. So as we move into the 2030 strategy and then for me I call it the push to 2030, the end to hunger.”

“Africa needs to end hunger now, we can’t continue to talk about hunger forever. That push to 2030, it’s something we’d like to learn from you all (Ghana), until we understand how we can work better together to be able to deliver together.” Dr. Agnes Kalibata affirmed.

USAID Ghana Agriculture Team Leader and Global Food Security Strategy Country Coordinator, Amber Lily Kenny noted that Ghana’s agriculture is characterized by low yields. She further stated that AGRA’s intervention will change the narrative.

“Despite the importance of agriculture to transform livelihoods, Ghana’s agricultural sector is characterized by low yields for both staple and cash crops. About 80% of staple food crop production are from small land holdings which ranges from half a hectare to two hectares. The small holder farmers are largely competitive and inefficient resulting in low productivity.”

“Other challenges faced by the agric sector include poor delivery systems from improved  technologies to farmers, limited access to value chain and access to finance and suboptimal policy environment. So through AGRA, a number of donors in partnership with AGRA are trying to change this, through the partnership for inclusive agriculture transformation in Africa,” she stated.