EU-GAP presents 57 motorcycles to MoFA
The European Union-Ghana Agriculture Programme (EU-GAP) on Monday presented 57 motorcycles and crash helmets worth over GH¢800,000 to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to help deliver agriculture extension services in Northern Ghana.
A total of 14 Municipal and District Department of Agriculture comprising Sawla-Tuna-Kalba and North Gonja Districts in the Savannah Region; Mamprugu Moagduri District in the North-East Region as well as all 11 MDAs in the Upper West Region and the Babile Agriculture Research Station would benefit from the items.
Handing over the motorbikes to the MoFA at Wa, Team Leader, Infrastructure and Sustainable Development, Ms Paulina Rozycka said agriculture extension agents and field officers played key role in ensuring that new knowledge and market information reached farmers to meet their demand.
She said extension agents needed reliable means of transport to be able to carry out their duties and travel to remote areas, hence the motorbikes were expected to facilitate their movement and enable them provide quality service to the farmers, irrespective of their location.
“The motorbikes will help the extension agents reach out to more farmers and disseminate timely information on best agricultural practices, including important knowledge on how to adapt to climate change,” she said.
She advised the recipients against careless riding and flouting motor traffic laws and admonished them to always wear their crush helmets.
The Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in charge of livestock, Alhaji Mohammed Hardi Tufeiru, who received the motorbikes thanked the European Union for their kind gesture in ensuring the smooth movement of extension officers.
He said extension officers provided important services to farmers through their regular visits to the farms to give them technical advice regarding their farming activities.
He noted that, the challenge of reaching farmers at remote areas was going to be a thing of the past, and advised the beneficiaries to undertake regular maintenance of the motorbikes.
The Wa East District Director of Agriculture, Madam Mavis Derigubah, also thanked the European Union for the presentation which according to her would go a long way in helping extension officers reach out to farmers.
The procurement of the motorbikes was done through the REACH component, which is co-funded by the EU and German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaftfür Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in collaboration with MoFA.
FROM RAFIA ABDUL RAZAK, WA
