President Akufo-Addo Presents Equipment to Wulensi Agric Mechanisation Centre

By Rex Mainoo Yeboah

The President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has presented agricultural equipment to the Agricultural Mechanisation Centre at Wulensi, in the Northern Region.

The equipment, which includes tractors, power tillers, harvesters, ploughs, amongst others, were presented by the President on Friday, August 16, 2019, as part his two-day tour of the Northern Region.

The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, who was at the presentation ceremony, said former President Kufour's government started with the building of agricultural mechanisation centres across the country and by the time he left office in 2008, the country had 78 of such centres.

Upon the assumption of office of President Akufo-Addo, Dr. Afriyie-Akoto said: "given the recognition of the importance of agriculture as a means of transforming the economy of this country, we chose the strategy that we are going to focus on smallholdings."

The policy, he added, was working and had reflected in improved output, improved productivity, the abundance of food, stressing that "this year, we are expecting a huge bumper crop around the country including Wulensi; and our exports to our neighbouring countries are going to keep on climbing."

The Minister said sustaining the growth would require mechanising "critical areas of the small holder's activity."

So far, he noted that 235 units of tractors and 1,000 units of power tillers have been brought into the country to establish the centres across the country.

"These are exactly what we have brought here, and we've brought into this country 1,000. And 1,000 is not enough, we are going through the last tranche of the Brazilian facility, we are going to increase that number to 2000. So that as many of you can have access to these power tillers," he said.

"The tractors that we've brought in is for medium to large size commercial farmers. So, what we've done is that, in collaboration with the Ministry of local government, 35 District Assemblies are to benefit, and this district was one of them," Dr. Owusu Afriyie said.

He continued, "That is why you have your share of the initial supply of machinery. We are also giving to 50 farmers groups around the country, and the rest can go to individual large farms or a smaller group of farms. By January, we are hoping that we get more."

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