Minister of Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong, has directed all farmers who have been affected by the dry spell to register on the Ghana Agriculture and Agribusiness platform to benefit from the GH₵8 billion relief package.
According to him, about 553,000 farmers have registered so far out of 600,000.
The Minister revealed this on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem, Tuesday each farmer will be paid GH₵1,000 per hectare of land.
“We have directed our officers to ensure all farmers get registered to ensure everyone benefits. We have a database of some people but there is a gap that needs to be filled,” he said.
The government through the Finance Ministry on Monday announced the GH₵8 billion relief package.
The relief package the Finance Minister, Dr Amin Adam explained will include cash transfers, food supplies, and other essential items for the affected farmers.
A technical task force, comprising officials from the Ministries of Finance and Food and Agriculture, will oversee the distribution to ensure fairness and accountability.
Shedding light on the database at their disposal, the Abetifi MP revealed 435,872 farmers, who were cultivating approximately 871,745 hectares of land have been directed affected.
“There are about 1.8 million hectares of farmland in the Northern region but as of now, we can confirm that over 871,000 have been affected so we will need to measure and also factor those in the southern zone and other areas,” he said.
The Minister highlighted that, these farmers have suffered an estimated investment loss of GH₵3.5 billion, with a potential revenue loss of GH₵10.4 billion.
In this regard, he acknowledged it will not be far fetch to say the relief package may not be adequate, however, GH₵8 billion is the government’s way to cushion the farmers and help them get back on their feet.
The most affected crops include maize, rice, groundnut, soybean, sorghum, millet, and yam.
Preliminary assessment has revealed massive destruction of farm crops in the Bono, Bono East, Oti, Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper-East, and Upper-West regions.
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