AATI to help Ghana transform agric sector
The African Agriculture Transformation Initiative (AATI) is establishing a country agency to assist Ghana’s agriculture transformation in enhancing the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) for efficient and effective service delivery.
This came to light when the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, met with the Executive Director of AATI, Safia Boly, at the sideline of the Africa Green Revolution Forum held recently in Kigali, Rwanda.
Dr Akoto’s engagement with Ms Boly centred on assistance to the Statistical, Research, and Information Directorate (SRID) of MoFA to improve data capture, management, and analysis for evidence-based policy decision-making.
Consequently, ATTI had agreed to provide data and analytic support to the Ministry as well as working with its partners, including McKinney, to mobilise resources for the programmes of the Tree Crop Development Authority and the Grains Development Authority, two key authorities for the agricultural transformation agenda of the government.
The minister stressed at the meeting that Ghana needed the appropriate agricultural credit products to fill the gaps in its systems for processing, storing, and selling inputs and outputs markets.
As a follow up, MoFa would havea meeting with AATI in November to firm up the outcome of the meeting between the minister and executive director.
The African Agricultural Transformation Initiative (AATI), with central office being hosted by International Fund for Agriculture Development,is assisting four African countries, including Ghana to realise their full agricultural potentials through partnership with private sector and civil society to develop appropriate infrastructure for delivery.
Endowed with an estimated budget of US$19.6 million until 2025, AATI is focused on improving sustainable development in Africa by bridging the gap between the formulation of strategic agricultural initiatives and their successful implementation at the local level.
The initiative seeks to help strengthen and transform the agriculture sector of African countries in order to lift vulnerable rural people out of poverty and hunger, and lessen their dependency on foreign imports.
Other countries benefitting from the initiative include Mali, Senegal and Kenya, which are being funded by International Fund for Agriculture Development, Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation, Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa and McKinsey & Company.
BY SALIFU ABDUL-RAHAMAN
