ACCRA, Ghana — The government of Ghana will deploy 5,000 graduates from agricultural and veterinary colleges as part of the newly launched Feed Ghana program, the Minister of Food and Agriculture said Monday.
Eric Opoku said the move is part of the government’s broader Agriculture for Economic Transformation Agenda and aims to boost domestic food production by supporting farmers with skilled labor.
“We want all 5,000 of them to be part of the Feed Ghana program so that they will be deployed to the various farms to assist our farmers to adopt modern techniques of farming,” Opoku said in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM.
He noted that some of the graduates have been unemployed since 2015 and will now be posted to farming communities across the country.
Opoku said Feed Ghana serves as an umbrella initiative under which various agricultural support projects—including vegetable production, grain development and poultry farming—will be implemented.
The minister also expressed concern over Ghana’s growing dependence on food imports.
He cited statistics showing that the country spends roughly GHS4 billion annually on tomatoes from Burkina Faso, GHS240 million on onions from Niger, and more than GHS3 billion on imported pepper.
“If Burkina Faso is able to produce the tomatoes, why is it that we cannot do it here in Ghana?” Opoku said. “We have the fertile soil and all the agricultural endowment.”
The Feed Ghana initiative is one of several strategies aimed at reducing import dependence and boosting local agricultural productivity.
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