Government Must Contribute Massively For Cashew Development In The Country.
The Chief Executive Officer of De Jordans Agro and Investment Mr Jordan Sheriff Owusu has called on the government to invest in cashew farming in the country with a well-laid out plan in place to improve the lives of Ghanaians with a focus on providing jobs and increasing export revenue.
Speaking on Rite Fm’s Agric Forum, he said in spite of the numerous financial, social and economic benefits, there is an increasing challenge affecting cashew production due to climate change in some regions of the country which needs attention.
“With the increasing challenges due to climate change, it is of crucial importance for Ghana to develop sustainable strategies for mitigation. Thus especially in the savannah regions, an area that is particularly vulnerable to the effect of climate change, have been identified as suitable for future cashew cultivation,” he noted.
It is in this regard he said the government led by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo must come on track to create an independent economy and effectively work around the clock to ensure the Cashew sector thrives in the production of the cash crop.
“Government must work relentlessly towards putting measures in place to sustain the Ghanaian cashew sector which can employ thousands of the unemployed graduates to reduce Ghana’s unemployment rate in the country.
He noted that the Ministry with support from government needs to draw strategies to encourage local processing to mitigate the challenges hampering revenue generation in the local economy especially in the cashew production regions across the country.
“The government, on its part is actively putting in measures to increase production of this crop and encouraging local processing. government on its part needs to prepar to do what is possible to support growth and development of the sector and to ensure the country can reap maximum benefits of cashew value chain,” said Mr Jordan Sheriff Owusu
Adding that looking at the huge prospects in cashew cultivation, “it is essential that the capabilities of the sector actors are built” especially in research fields to lead to increase in yields, diversified exports and provide the much-needed jobs available for the teeming unemployed youth in the country.
The Competitive Cashew initiative (ComCashew) focuses on building a sustainable cashew value chain and on increasing the competitiveness of African cashew production and processing. It constitutes a new era of multi-stakeholder partnership in development cooperation.
The 6th edition provides a platform for 83 participants from 10 countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone to share knowledge, discuss best practices and lessons learnt as well as to build national and regional networks for future collaboration.
Since its inception in 2009, around 440,000 new jobs have been created in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Mozambique – 75 percent in production, 20 per cent in trade and 5 per cent in processing.
In Ghana, the initiative has trained more than 40,000 farmers and has created over 46,500 jobs in production and processing. In the area of processing, the project has given technical support and assistance to 7 processors.
It is funded in its third phase by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Develop-ment (BMZ).
Donors including public and private institutions work hand in hand to achieve poverty reduction in ComCashew’s countries of intervention.
The aim of the project is to bring about sustainable growth using the value chain approach in African countries, to help reduce poverty, and to improve nutrition among a growing number of smallholder farmer households.
ComCashew’s objective is to increase and consolidate the competitiveness of the cashew value chain and its contribution.
By: Austin Ofori Addo/ritefmonline.org/austinofori.addo@gmail.com
