Ghana is estimated to rake in some $12 billion in revenues from other cash crops apart from cocoa following the successful implementation of the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) programme being pursued by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA).
The ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, launched PERD aimed at diversifying the country’s agricultural export capacity to include other tree crops with equal economic values as cocoa.
So far, PERD which is one of the components of government’s agricultural flagship policy – Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) – is concentrating on six major tree crops like coconut, rubber, cashew, oil palm, coffee and shea, and is set to generate over $12 million in export.
Other PFJ programmes include Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ), which is the livestock component; Agricultural Mechanization Centres and Greenhouse Villages Initiative.
According to the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the six tree crops have the potential to outstrip cocoa and diversify the country’s economy from the over-reliance on only one crop as the major export commodity.
“The ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ vision can only be achieved if we are able to increase our agricultural export capacity; this is what we hope to do through the PERD programme. The six crops combined can each fetch us $12 billion in terms of exporting the raw materials alone, and this does not include value addition,” the minister said at a recent Cocoa Value Chain Summit organised by Ecobank in Accra.
He said millions of seedlings had been nursed and were being distributed to farmers at the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) as part of the PERD programme.
The minister also highlighted a number of programmes which have been put in place by government to enhance the revenue earned from cocoa, including the proposed establishment of a $100 million dollar cocoa processing factory to add value to raw cocoa at Sefwi Wiawso.
By Melvin Tarlue