Ghana Agriculture news-Members of the national Soya Value Chain Committee have appealed to the Hon Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto to extend the success story of maize production under Planting for Food and Jobs to Soya production in the country.
The group which is made up of Soya seed producers, input dealers, farmers, aggregators, processors,researchers and mechanization operators met with the Minister last Monday in Accra to discuss ways and means of increasing Soya production.
John Bello,chairman of the Group told the Minister “you have established an enviable record in producing enough maize on the local market and we want you to turn your attention now to Soya production”.
Mr Bello also pleaded with the Minister to initiate steps to abolish the import of Soya in order to encourage internal producers.
MINISTER’S RESPONSE:
The Hon Minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto welcomed the formation of the group as a solution to the problems of the poultry industry in the country.
He said that soya and maize were the main ingredients of feed for the poultry industry and since Planting for Food and Jobs has solved the issue of maize,soya has become the crop of 2019.
The Minister identified harvesting as a major problem for soya farmers and pledged that his ministry will soon release to them very simple harvesters which have been ordered from Brazil and India.
He told them to be encouraged by the fact that the price of Soya on the world market is double that of maize.
Dr. Afriyie Akoto further assured the group of his efforts and negotiations with local financial institutions such as the Ghana Commercial Bank to support farmers with special concessionary financial packages.
The steering Committee of the group is expected to be inaugurated shortly by the Minister.
