Accra: The Government has announced plans to engage more than 100,000 post-national service personnel in sustainable agriculture and cocoa enterprise initiatives to boost the country's food security and cocoa output.
According to Ghana News Agency, the beneficiary service personnel would receive micro grants, input supply, and technical support from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, World Food Programme, Ghana Enterprises Agency, Tree Crop Development Authority, and Mastercard Foundation. They would have access to land banks to enable them to form co-operatives and engage in cluster farming across the country.
Mr. George Opare Addo, the Minister of Youth Development and Empowerment, made this known on the floor of Parliament. The Minister was responding to questions from legislators about measures the government is putting in place to ensure post-national service personnel engage in meaningful ventures.
Mr. Opare Addo stated that the government, through the National Service Authority, had secured 20,000 acres of land at Kumawu and is in the process of acquiring an additional 30,000 acres for distribution to post-national service personnel to engage in cluster farming. The Minister noted that beneficiaries would be paired with experienced cocoa farmers across the country to mentor them in growing cocoa, boosting the country's cocoa output, and engaging in livestock rearing and other agribusiness enterprises.
The beneficiaries, the Minister explained, would repay the support the government had offered them once their farms and agribusinesses begin to yield results in the future.
