President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has revealed that the Exim Bank of India will from 2021 facilitate the supply of some US$150 million farm machinery, agro-processing and other value adding machinery to improve mechanised farming in the country.
Speaking at the 35th National Farmers Day Celebration on the theme “Agribusiness Development under COVID-19 – Opportunities and Challenges,” the president announced that “Concessionary agreements have been concluded with India and Czech Republic for the supply of large consignment of farms and processing machinery, including hand-held farm implements to be sold at a subsided rate.”
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According to the president, this is part of measures to move agriculture from the use of manual labour to the use of machinery.
On her part, the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, also said that a modernised fishery sector is important in restoring the economy post COVID-19.
It is important to note that a well-developed agribusiness is key for the growth and diversification of the fisheries sector from its subsistence nature characterised by the use of traditional and simple technology to a modernised sector. A modernised fisheries sector anchored on an established agribusiness is an important source of job creation particularly in farming and fishing communities could rapidly reduce rural poverty” she said.
She added that the Aquaculture for Food and Jobs Programme, initiated in January this year to increase the fish production and job creation in the aquaculture food chain, has so far covered 13 regions out of 16.
Source: Fauzeeya Jamal-deen
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