The Ministry of Food & Agriculture, MoFA through the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP) has released 150 motorbikes to Agric Extension Agents in 10 regions around the country. These are Northern, Ashanti, North East, Upper East, Bono, Bono East, Eastern, Central, Greater Accra and Volta Regions. The motorbikes are the first batch of 500 motorbikes to be distributed by the ministry.
Commissioning the motorbikes, at the MoFA Projects Office, Cantoments, Accra, Hon. Eric Opoku Minister for Food & Agriculture & MP for Asunafo South re-iterated government's commitment to modernizing agriculture through logistics support and technology-driven extension delivery. He announced that the 150 motorbikes were being presented to AEAs, with 30 specially designed to accommodate female extension officers, reflecting MoFA's drive for gender inclusivity.
The Minister acknowledged the World Bank’s vital role in funding the initiative under FSRP and applauded their continued partnership in building a resilient agricultural sector. He further revealed that 41,355 Community Commodity Farmer Cooperatives have been formally registered and encouraged them to democratically elect leaders, open bank accounts, and submit details to their district and regional directors of agriculture to qualify for future support.
The Project Coordinator of FSRP, Mr.Osei Owusu Agyeman outlined the importance of equipping AEAs to ensure last-mile delivery of digital tools, climate-smart agricultural technologies and localized agro-advisory services to farmers. He highlighted FSRP’s pillars of “Sustainability, Ownership & Public-private” engagement to ensure that FSRP’s intervention thrive beyond the project.
Present to receive the motorbikes on behalf of the AEAs were Regional Directors from FSRPs intervention areas: Upper East(Zalcana Fuseini), North East(Edward Masara), Bono(Dela Newman), Bono East(James Adu), Eastern(Haija Habiba Yusuf), Central(Peter Omega), Greater Accra(Eric Hudson), Volta(William), Northern, Hawa Musa ( Rep . Fatawu Abdul ), Ashanti, Godfrey Acheampong ( Rep . Benjamin Ninoni ).
Andrea Akl, Deputy General Manager of QUALIPLAST threw light on some QUALIPLAST products that support the practice of climate-smart agriculture.
MOFA, through FSRP is driving the dissemination of timely, location-specific agro-meteorological information and advisories; as well as the promotion of technology access and exchange of technologies through the delivery of CSA technologies, nutrition- and gender-sensitive, land, and water management technology packages. The project is also coordinating activities towards the sharing of knowledge regarding post-harvest food handling practices and marketing linkages.
These are being carried out and facilitated through regular field visits, events, demonstrations and farmer field school by Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs) in strategic locations around the country.
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