MoFA develops database to identify different areas of production
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture, in collaboration with its development partners, is developing a database for the agriculture sector in Ghana to help identify the different areas of production the farmers are engaged in.
Advertisement
The database also seeks to address the relationships between the climate, soil type and farm management systems, including irrigation.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, announced this in a speech read on his behalf by his deputy, Mr George Oduro, at a stakeholder validation workshop on a strategic plan for agriculture and rural statistics in Accra.
The partners in the project are the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
Why the database
Dr Akoto said the database would help the agriculture sector to fully understand and appreciate situations and to measure the underlying factors that would lead to developing solutions that were evidence based to address challenges in the sector.
To achieve this, he said researchers would be deployed to the district levels to collect data on agriculture activities.
Dr Akoto also recognised the fact that the agriculture sector was a key driver of the economy, supporting the livelihood of more than 70 per cent of the rural population and contributing about 20 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Accurate database
“An accurate database is very necessary and will be instrumental in enhancing planning and facilitating the production of accurate national accounts; and for monitoring the performance of interventions in the sector, such as the government’s flagship programme, Planting for Food and Jobs.
“This training would be enough to evaluate the National Agricultural Statistics System, identify problems and propose strategic objectives to implement strategy to achieve qualitative and quantitative change in agricultural statistics” Dr Akoto explained.
The Lead National Consultant of the Strategic Plan for Agriculture and Rural Statistics, Mr Christian Amedo, speaking at the workshop, said the sub-sector working groups such as forestry and logging, fisheries, crop and livestock personnel would identify weaknesses that existed in the generation of data in their outfit.
He said the strategy at the end of the day would provide a framework and methodology to improve on the availability and quality of national and international agricultural and food statistics.