The Bank of Ghana plans to launch an initiative that will insure farmers against the high risks involved in farming that make commercial banks unwilling to give them credit.
This will squash collaterals that have been a major constraint in the smallholder’s bid to access credit.
The US$100-million Ghana Incentive-Based Risk Sharing Agricultural Lending project will boost agriculture and food security in the country, as both commercial and small farmers can then expand their farms with a business focus.
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Alhaji Limuna explained that under the initiative, if a farmer is unable to repay a loan as a result of natural disasters such as floods, drought and accidental fires that damage their yields, the commercial bank will send a team to investigate the circumstances.
Addressing outgrowers of Eden Tree, a nucleus farm at Dodoekope in the Dangme East District during his tour of the Accra Plains, Alhaji Limuna assured them of government interventions that will make farming attractive to the youth. He said the time has come for the nation’s youth to replace the elderly in farming, with a shift from the hoe and cutlass to mechanised agriculture that creates wealth for them.
He also addressed the managements of Golden Exotics Ltd (GEL), Abians Agro Enterprise, Farmer-based Organisations (FBOs) and BRLi, consultants doing designs for rehabilitating and modernising the Kpong Irrigation Scheme at the GEL training centre at Asutsuare.
The minister’s two-day tour of the Accra Plains took him to VegPro Ghana Ltd and AnyakoFarms at Torgorme and GADCO at Sogakope all in the North Tongu District; Eden Tree at Dodoekope and Sugarland Ltd at Kortorko, both in the Dangme West District; and Abians Agro Enterprise and Golden Exotics Ltd both at Asutsuare in the Asuogyaman District.
Alhaji Limuna gave the same message to famers in the SADA Zone when he interacted with them in Bolgatanga and at Kukobila in the Savelugu-Nanton District.
He also interacted with the management of the Irrigation Company of the Upper Region, farmers and SMEC International, design consultants on the Tono and Vea Dams at the Tono Club House at Tono near Navrongo.
Alhaji Limuna met with outgrowers of the Farmers Training Centre and Wilphin Enterprise in Bolgatanga too. Other farms he visited included M-Gallant, Akandem,and the Integrated Water and Agricultural Development Ghana Ltd(IWAD).
The Project Co-ordinator of GCAP, Charles Nornoo, said GCAP aims at improving the investment climate for agri-business and developing private-public-partnerships and smallholder linkages so as to increase on-farm productivity and value addition in selected value-chains.
He said GCAP is working hard towards its objective of increasing access to water, secure land, finance, and input and output markets for smallholders from public-private partnerships in commercial agriculture in the Accra Plains and the SADA Zone.
The outgrowers expressed appreciation for GCAP’s support to nucleus farms which has been immensely beneficial to them. They, however, said the delay in getting tractor services, seeds and fertilisers affect their production and appealed to the minister to help them overcome the difficulty.
In response, Alhaji Limuna assured the outgrowers farm service centres will soon be set up to address these problems and help increase production.