Forum on roots and tubers held in Cape Coast
A day’s forum on Root Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme (RTIMP) has been held in Cape Coast to create further awareness on the Programme among stakeholders on Tuesday.
The Forum was attended by about 100 farmers, processors and other stakeholders in the root and tuber industry from various towns in and around the Metropolis.
The topics discussed at the forum were commodity chain linkages, tertiary production, quality management system and Micro Enterprise Fund.
The RTIMP is a Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) intervention Programme which is being done in phases with the first phase carried out from 1999 to 2005, the second phase which started in 2006 is currently on-going and will end in 2014.
Mr. Samuel Nyamekye, the Zonal Coordinator for RTIMP Zone 3 in Koforidua, a facilitator of the workshop, said the goal of the RTIMP was to enhance food security as well as boost income of the farmers who deal in roots and tuber crops.
He said RTIMP provided farmers with improved varieties of the root and tuber crops and also support processors with stainless steel equipment and at the same time to improve upon their working environment.
He said the second phase dealt with marketing of the produce and a fund called the Micro Enterprise Fund had been established to support processors and other stakeholders along the commodity chain.
The Central Regional Director of Agriculture, Mr. George Badu Yeboah, said the Ghana had given MoFA the mandate to ensure food security in the country especially in case of disasters.
He said the country would not have to rely on other countries for food to ensure the survival of the citizenry if food security was achieved.
Mr. Badu assured the youth that strategies are being put in place by his outfit to improve agriculture in the Region and so they should not shy away from farming but rather take it up as their occupation.
The Cape Coast Metropolitan Director of Agriculture, Mr. Samuel Abraham said food production was not only about the harvesting of the food stuffs and that transporters and processors must also come into play to complete the production chain.
Source: GNA