Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto has lauded the West African Center for Crop Improvement (WACCI) in the fight to attain food security in the continent.
The minister opined that the center was doing amazing works to improve the agriculture landscape.
“…that means the demand for these seed will be almost exponential in the years, and if we succeed in doing this we would chance the landscape of agriculture in the country. That is why appreciate the work WACCI is doing and I say that WACCI is a great ambassador of the University of Ghana,” he said.
Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto further stressed on the need for investment in pushed into building marketing infrastructures and facilities for agricultural goods.
“We need to spend money in building marketing infrastructure in the country. We have thirty-two thousand tons capacity as a ministry and we have twenty-seven warehouses across the country.
In my estimation, the local market for maize is about half a metric tons and to be able to market this, you will need about 200 thousand metric tons ware housing facility. We only have two thousand, how can we succeed.” He said.
He said this at the International Conference on Food and Nutrition Security in Africa 2018 which was held at the University of Ghana under the theme “The March Towards A Hunger-Free Africa.
Story by: Dorothy Mawuenam Buatsi