Breadbasket Strategy to boost agricultural production in Ghana's Northern region
For more information contact:
Genevieve Deamesi: +233 262 860 246
gdeamesi@agra-alliance.org
Stella Kihara: +254 735 380 199
skihara@agra-aliance.org
■ Up to $500 million contribution of agriculture to GDP
■ Increased income for some 250.000 smallholder farmers
■ Up to 15.000 jobs created
“The breadbasket strategy will unleash the potential of Ghana’s smallholder farmers and boost agriculture productivity,” said AGRA President Dr. Ngongi, after presentation of the plan to the Government of Ghana, development partners, and private sector players in the capital Accra. “With the government of Ghana’s commitment to this approach as well as the support of Ghana’s many development partners, we will move Ghana a step closer to a food secure and prosperous country.”
The breadbasket strategy outlined in a 75-page document entitled Breadbasket Transformation of Ghana’s Northern Regions is the result of months of field work and thorough analysis of the current agricultural activity in the Northern region and its growth potential by a joint team of Ghana’s ministry of Agriculture, experts from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), AGRA and McKinsey Consultants.
With the presentation of Ghana’s breadbasket strategy, AGRA has reached a significant milestone in the realisation of its 10-year strategy that focuses on pooling resources together and creating partnerships to develop breadbasket areas, initially in Ghana, Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania.
“The next step is to mobilize resources for implementation. We are very encouraged with the interest we are already seeing from multilateral institutions as well as the private sector,” said AGRA Ghana Country Director Dr. Andre Bationo.
The Northern Region, which represents 41 per cent of Ghana's total land area, has been identified by the Government of Ghana and AGRA as a breadbasket area because of its high production potential for staple food crops such as rice, maize, sorghum and soybeans and large rural farming populations.
The team developed recommendations on how to sustainably boost production of the Northern Region’s main staple crops based on four key elements: the creation of smallholder aggregation units, the introduction of socially inclusive commercial farms, continued support for high value-added crops and prioritising government and donor efforts.
As indicated in the strategy, the total public (government and donor) up-front investment needed is estimated at approximately $110 million for aggregation units, infrastructure for commercial farms and transversal support. An additional operating cost of $8 million might be needed to ensure credit guarantees, extension support and governance. The upfront public investment would potentially be made over a ramp-up period of 5-10 years, resulting in annual public capital expenditure of $12 million.
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About the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
AGRA is a dynamic partnership working across the African continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. AGRA programmes develop practical solutions to significantly boost farm productivity and incomes for the poor while safeguarding the environment. AGRA advocates for policies that support its work across all key aspects of the African agricultural value chain from seeds, soil health and water to markets and agricultural education.
AGRA's Board of Directors is chaired by Kofi A Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations. Dr Namanga Ngongi, former Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme, is AGRA's president. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK's Department for International Development and other donors, AGRA works across sub-Saharan Africa and maintains offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Accra, Ghana.