Deputy Minister of Agric in charge of crops, honourable Alhassan Yakubu has acknowledged that high tractor deficit in the country’s agric sector is seriously affecting the sector. Mr. Yakubu who was speaking to Rite news on the sidelines of the Ghana Non-State Actors sensitization workshop in Accra said there was a huge deficit in the number of tractors the country boasts of as against what is actually needed.
Quoting figures to buttress his point, the deputy minister said the country currently boasts of some six thousand (6000) tractors to support crop production and land preparation in the country. This according to him leaves a huge deficit of between 14000 and 15000 tractors since what the sector needs is between 20000 and 21000 tractors.
“Even if government was investing 1000 tractors a year, it would still take over ten years to fix the gap,” the deputy minister stated. He added that public funds alone can’t fill that yawning gap and he has thus called on the Non-State Actors and the private sector to step in and help stem the tide. He said the government needs to use public funds to leverage private funding to get it going.
Honourable Yakubu however noted that the Chief Director of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Director of Engineering were in Brazil negotiating the shipment of Brazilian farm machinery into the country. He pointed out that, 3000 pieces of equipment and 1500 pieces of harvesters, planters and applicators of various inputs were in line to be shipped into the country by the end of May.
The deputy minister gave the assurance that the equipment would be sold to farmers at subsidized costs and also made available on hire purchase, adding that in as much as such issues as the availability of parts and quality of the tractors have been taken into consideration, the private sector must equally come in to invest in spare parts.
Source: ritefmonline.org
