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Business News of Wednesday, 1 March 2017

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

ADVANCE, USAID support more than 100,000 farmers in Ghana to increase productivity.

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Despite the sluggish progress, challenges that limit the agricultural sector from realizing its full potential remain paramount, and are yet to be dealt with. The northern part of the country with its vast arable lands has a poverty rate nearly twice as the south's.

With the aim of improving agricultural fortunes of the country, The United States Agency for international Development (USAID) and Feed the Future’s Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement(ADVANCE) project has revealed at a summit organized in Accra that 107, 000 farmers in Ghana have been enrolled on the support scheme of ‘feed the future’ initiative.

‘The project which sought to help increase productivity reached 107,000 cereal farmers thereby increasing the profit margin of maize farmers to 81%, and rice and soy farmers to 73% and 79% respectively’ country representative for ADVANCE, Dr. Emmanuel Dormon noted.

According Dr. Emmanuel Dormon, more than 38 million dollars of financing to over 500 private agricultural businesses was achieved, as well as linking more than 180 out grower businesses to the Ghanaian agricultural market.

Deputy Director of USAID Ghana, Steve Hendrix, also noted that Feed the Future Initiative has brought USAID together with other development partners and government to build a more food secured future

‘Last year in Ghana, owing to our hard work and dedication more than 100, 000 farmers increased their incomes. The government of Ghana is one of our important partners in our quest to advance Ghana’s economy and agricultural growth ’Mr. Hendrix remarked