The USAID Ghana has asked media practitioners in across the country to tone down on the political issues and champion the course of pertinent issues that affect the ordinary Ghanaian especially agriculture.
According to the USAID, even though agriculture is said to be the backbone of the Ghanaian economy less is said about the sector in the media.
This it attributed to the lack of technical information Ghanaian journalist lack on agriculture to champion the course.
It is against this backdrop that the USAID Ghana under its Agricultural Policy support project organized a 2 day workshop for media personnel in Accra on Agricultural reporting and communication.
According to the chief of Party of the project, Walter Nunez-Rodriguez, the role agricultural plays in Ghana far outweighs the importance and attention given to the sector in the media.
He hoped the training will go a long way to equip journalists on the technicalities to be able to increase the awareness of agriculture issues in the country.
The Senior Food security Adviser of USAID Ghana, Dr. Fenton Sands underscored the need for farmers in Ghana to be equipped to grow rice other than investing in imports which has a toll on the economy of Ghana.
He said Ghana has the capacity to be food sufficient but it requires the media and others stakeholder in the agricultural sector to champion the course to make it a reality.
Dr. Sands stated that the 5 year $225 million Agricultural Policy support project forms part of US government initiative to support food security in Africa adding that it focus mainly is on rice, maize and soybean farmers.
The project which is mostly concentrated in the Northern region also aims at increasing the income of smallholder farmers across the country with a $690 million net household by 2017 when the project ends.
