The Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme, IPEP, in the Eastern Region, has identified poor road networks as a key challenge confronting farmers in the Eastern Region.This was revealed by the Eastern regional team leader of IPEP, Michael Oteng Adu in an interview with Rite news.
The regional IPEP teams which were constituted earlier this year are to identify key challenges confronting the respective regions and make a need assessment for the development authorities.
“The team has so far visited the various constituencies where we spoke to stakeholders and issued questionnaires,’ he explained.
Key needs:
Some of the key needs identified by the team in the region bordered on poor road networks within most communities, the need for agro processing factories as well as the need to extend electricity supply to deprived areas among other needs.
“Every farmer is looking for an opportunity to market their products and that’s where the need for good road networks came in. A lot of the farmers believed that improving upon the road network would grant them easy access to the markets in order to market their farm produce,” Mr. Oteng Adu asserted adding that other needs identified by farmers included the need for agro processing factories.
“On agro processing factories, many farmers looked forward to the creation of factories to address their need for post-harvest losses,” he added.
Under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP), government would allocate 275 million dollars to the development of basic infrastructure in 275 constituencies to embark on poverty alleviation projects.
Many stakeholders have raised fears of a possible conflict between the Development Authorities and the district assemblies concerning plans to allocate the one million dollars to each constituency under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme.
Meanwhile, Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development who have allayed these fears, explaining that the assemblies would assist the zonal implementing authorities in coordinating and harmonising activities to ensure successful execution of the one district, one million cedis programme.
Government would also establish three development authorities namely the Northern Development Authority, the Middle Belt Development Authority and the Coastal Development Authority to oversee the implementation of the programme.
The IPEP was in line with the promises made by the New Patriotic Party in the run-up to the 2016 General Election.
Source: ritefmonline.org
