The Ministry of Food and Agriculture has procured 500 motorbikes for distribution to agricultural extension officers in various districts across the country and Feed Ghana Coordinators, who will soon be sent to districts to support extension officers.

The Agric extension officers are the agents through whom MOFA conveys vital information about new ideas and technologies in agricultural practices to farmers.

The first batch of 150 motorbikes  was yesterday presented to extension officers at a ceremony held in Accra.

Thirty of the 150 motorbikes have gender-friendly specifications to support women extension officers.

Use

The sector minister, Eric Opoku, who made the presentation, explained that the motorbikes were expected to facilitate the movement of extension officers from their locations to wherever the farmers were, among others, to educate them on best agricultural practices.

Emphasising the importance of extension officers as intermediaries between research and farmers, Mr Opoku stated that without them, it would be difficult for research to impact food production significantly.

‘’If you deploy them to various districts and prevent them from having transport to reach the farmers in the hinterlands, the impact will be minimal. Based on this, the ministry decided to procure the 500 motorbikes’’, he explained.

Mr Opoku urged the extension officers to use the motorbikes so that Ghanaians, whose taxes funded them, would be pleased.

Expressing concern over the number of extension service officers in the country, he stated that the international service standard recommended that one extension officer serve at most 500 farmers. However, records at the ministry showed that in Ghana, one extension officer was responsible for nearly 1500 farmers.

"Certainly, no individual can be effective under these circumstances. So we have decided to recruit some Feed Ghana Coordinators to work under the supervision of our district directors to support them in educating the farmers and to help close the bridge between research and the farmers."

Cooperatives

Touching on farmer cooperatives, he said the ministry had successfully registered 42,822 farmer cooperatives across the country and explained that those cooperatives would help increase food production in the country.

The minister further expressed concern about Ghana's weak food systems, emphasising the need to establish mechanisms to strengthen these systems so they can better respond to the demands and aspirations of the people.

He said in line with that, since assuming office, the government decided to turbocharge the country's agriculture fundamentals by procuring modern equipment to support soil testing in various districts to avoid blanket fertiliser application that was not leading to enhanced production and productivity in the sector.

He said they were also upgrading the Kumasi Soil Laboratory to meet international standards and to be the first of its kind in the subregion to effectively manage soils.

FSRP

Speaking about the West African Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP), the Project Coordinator, Osei Owusu Agyeman, explained that the FSRP, which is being promoted by ECOWAS and funded by the World Bank, has the objectives of addressing food insecurity in the sub-region and also building a system that works together to provide daily meals for people.

He said each country in ECOWAS was expected to have a project as part of the programme.

Ghana's project was centred on sustainability, ownership and public-private engagement.

The Deputy General Manager of Qualiplast Limited, Andrea Akl, spoke about the various agricultural products they produce that benefit farmers.