The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Bryan Acheampong, has announced that food grants will be distributed to over 800,000 farmers in the eight drought-affected regions beginning October 10.
He made the announcement on Tuesday at the minister’s press briefing on measures to address the effect of the dry spell in Accra.
The Minister stated that farmers in the affected regions would receive 25kg of rice and 100kg of maize as part of the government’s relief effort.
“Additionally, an online grain market is being set up to allow the public to conveniently purchase maize and rice at affordable prices starting October 10,” he added.
According to the minister, for transparency and accountability of all transactions, there would be input distribution and food grant distribution on the Ghana Agriculture and Agribusiness Platform (GhAAP).
“To qualify, you must be a farmer and you and your farm must be fully registered on the GhAAP, we have made modifications to allow the GhAAP to accept Voter ID cards for those affected farmers who don’t have Ghana Cards,” he noted.
Dr Acheampong said the ministry has deployed 3,000 personnel including 2,700 AEAs and 261 District Agric Officers (DAOs), who have been equipped with tablets and set a target of registering an average of 12 farmers per day for the next 60 days.
He said, “This is to ensure that no farmer is left behind. We have also provided an option for self-registration on the GhAAP (you can go to the Google Play store and download the GhAAP Farmer App).”
The minister called on Ghanaians to rally behind the Planting for Food and Jobs Phase 2 initiative to support smallholder farmers, invest in commercial agriculture and continue to commit to an annual irrigation investment plan averaging 3 billion cedis a year over the next 10 years.
“Additionally, we must invest in long-term grain storage systems, targeting a capacity increase of 100,000 metric tons per year over the next 16 years to enhance food security and resilience,” he added.