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Ghana: 65% of arable land in Northern Region lying idle – Alhaji Shaibu

Ghana
Published Dec 2, 2021

Tridge summary

Only 35 percent of arable lands, approximately 2,315,43 hectares are under cultivation in the Northern Region, while the remaining 65 percent are lying idle, Alhaji Shani Alhassan Shaibu, the Regional Minister has revealed. He attributed the situation to the over-reliance on rain-fed agriculture, low mechanisation, high post-harvest losses and poor marketing affecting large scale farming in the area even though all crops do thrive in the area.

Original content

The Minister was taking his turn to sell his Region during the official opening of the 37th edition of the Farmers’ Day celebration and Trade Exhibition in Cape Coast last Monday. However, he was hopeful that considering the numerous valleys in the Eastern and Central parts of the region, in addition to some small and medium scale dams, the issue of irrigation for crops will be resolved. The farmers in his area, he said had embraced government’s policy interventions as an effective measure of strengthening and expanding the target areas to improve productivity and their well-being. The interventions include; Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ), agricultural mechanisation centre (AMSEC) and the Green House Technology Village Project, Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) among others. Supporting his claim, he announced that under the PFJ programme alone, a total of 333,708 farmers made up of 286,354 males and 47,354 females had benefited ...
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