Ghana’s Agric. Ministry expresses gratitude to the EU for ReDIAL project
The Chief Director of the Ministry for Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr. Robert P. Ankobiah has expressed excitement about the European Union (EU) funded Research for Development and Innovation Agriculture and Learning (ReDIAL) project. He indicated that MoFA finds the project to be relevant to the development agenda of the agriculture sector which seeks to modernize and accelerate the growth therein on a sustainable basis.
Mr. Ankobiah explained that the project will contribute to the transformation and innovation in agriculture and food systems in Ghana through action research, application of innovative technologies and mobilization of farmers and multi-stakeholder platforms.
He used the opportunity to express the government’s profound gratitude to the EU for its immense support to the agriculture sector. He explained that since 2017 under the 11th European Union Development Fund, the EU has provided over 130 million Euros grant resources for the implementation of integrated programme in the Northern part of Ghana called the EU-Ghana Agriculture Programme. He indicated that the project seeks to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and other project beneficiaries through the promotion of specific food crops, provision of water infrastructure, development of food supply roads and interventions to address climate change stresses.
Mr. Ankobiah explained that the ReDIAL project therefore comes to compliment and complete the work under the EU Agriculture Programme.
He recommended that lessons learnt should be integrated into the programme holistically for the entire agriculture sector. Mr. Ankobiah expressed the need for agriculture to be transformed in Ghana to trigger the socio-economic development that that is needed.
He explained that apart from providing the basic needs of food for the citizenry and inhabitants, more than 70% of the population depends directly or indirectly on agriculture for livelihoods. “It is therefore critical that in this era of Climate Change, we seriously start to implement programmes that promote both food security and sustainably”.
Mr. Akobiah in his closing remarks indicated that MoFA is committed to working with ReDIAL and its partners to achieve its goals. He pledged government’s full support to ensure success of the project.
