Minister for Food and Agriculture; Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto
Various stakeholders and players in the country’s Agricultural sector met in the Ashanti region to assess the government’s performance for the sector.
The three day joint sector review meeting will also enable development partners express their thoughts on happenings within the sector.
The meeting also sought to deliberate on bills for the six tree crops under the government’s Planting for Export and Rural Development Programme (PERD).
Minister for Food and Agriculture; Dr. Afriyie Akoto in an interaction with journalists on the sidelines of the meeting explained that a board will be put in place to oversee and regulate activities concerning the six tree crops; Cashew, Rubber, Mango, Coffee, Coconut and oil palm. He explained that the board will issue licenses to farmers who want to be part of the programme and will fix prices in order to help improve the livelihoods of the farmers. He was hopeful the tree crops will eventually become like cocoa; earning the country very good foreign exchange.
He explained that the Bill for the development of the tree crops were considered and will be sent to Parliament shortly.
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