Ghana seeks partnership with Brazil to develop agric sector

Ghana is exploring investment opportunities with Brazil to transform the country’s agriculture, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yoofi Grant has said.

He said Ghana needed huge investment in the agricultural value chain to transform the sector and Brazil offered hope for the country.

Mr Grant who disclosed this at the launch of this year’s Agrishow Brazil 2020 in Accra said the country was building stronger partnership with Brazil to deploy its technology to transform Ghana’s agriculture.

This year’s Agrishow Brazil 2020 to be held in Brazil has been slated for March 27 to May 1, 2020.

Mr Grant said Brazil was now considered an agricultural power-house and one of the largest food exporters in the world.

He said Brazil, had industrialised its economy on the back of agriculture and the intention of government was to pursue same, saying that was the reason why the government introduced the Planting for Food and Jobs and Rearing for Food and Jobs.

He said the objective of those initiatives was to reduce the country’s import of food such as rice, maize and also provide the raw material base for the industrial take off of the Ghanaian economy.

He said it was regrettable Ghana spent huge sums of money every year to import rice and other products, when it had arable lands to produce same.

Mr Grant said agriculture offered huge potential for the country in the areas of job creation and production of exportable agricultural produce.

The CEO said the youth was not attracted to agriculture due to the drudgery associated with the sector and the objective of government was to change that through the deployment of modern machines for farming.

He lauded the Brazilian Embassy and Agrihouse Foundation for organising the Agrishow fair to be held in Brazil to help expose farmers from Ghana to best agricultural practices and new technologies and new agricultural machineries for farming.

The Second Secretary of the Brazilian Embassy in Accra, Marco Sparano said Brazil had expertise and technologies to improve agriculture in Ghana.

He said the fair would offer companies in Ghana to strike business partnerships with their Brazilian counterparts.

Mr Sparano indicated that Brazil transformed its agriculture through research and deployment of new technologies in farming and financial support for farmers.

The CEO of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta nana Akyaa Akosa in her remarks said the Agrishow Brazil was to expose farmers in Ghana sto new agricultural technologies in Brazil.

She said the programme was to offer companies in Ghana to strike business opportunities in Brazil.

Mrs Akyaa entreated companies in the country to take advantage of the fair to seek news business partnership.

By Kingsley Asare