AGRA launches initiative to boost agric

0

The acting Minister for Food and Agriculture, Mr. Mike Hammah, has expressed hope that the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa’s (AGRA) initiative to develop Farmer Based Organisation Centres (FBOs) will augment the Ministry’s efforts to make extension services more available to farmers in a more cost-effective manner.

He also hoped that the launch of the new initiative will also facilitate farmers’ access to inputs, credit, and basic management services as well as facilitate the development of FBO apex bodies to empower farmers to influence policy and lobby for better services.

Mr. Hammah made these comments when he launched the Farmer Organisation Support Centre, an initiative meant to provide support to farmer Organisations (FOs) in the country and Africa as a whole, in Accra last week.

The new initiative aims to strengthen the managerial, organisational, and technical capacity of FOs with the aim of transforming them to provide demand-driven and income-enhancing services to their members.

Speaking in an interview, the lead coordinator of FOSCA Mr. Fadel Ndiame said: “We want to better understand the needs of our members and be in a position to provide them with the best.  It is with this mindset that FOSCA has come into fruition as a supporting programme in AGRA. 

We hope that FOs all over the country and in Africa will support this initiative and be open, as we need their support to make this initiative a success. The potential of agriculture in this country and Africa has not been fully realised, and we have the opportunity and capacity to achieve its full potential.”

The FOSCA was established by AGRA in 2010 with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in order to develop the managerial, organisational and technical capacity of FOs by linking them with service providers that focus on demand-driven and income-enhancing services.

FOSCA is expected to contribute to the overall AGRA vision of increasing smallholder incomes and livelihoods through effective FOs capable of delivering on the needs of their members by identifying and engaging a robust network of FOs in target countries and identifying income-enhancing needs of their members.

As well as increasing and improving the supply of relevant services available to FOs to respond to their needs and linking FOs with service providers and private sector players in value-chains to enhance their capacity for effective service delivery (market-driven income gains) for their members, FOSCA also seeks to evaluate outcomes, document lessons, and build a knowledge base on FOS that will promote learning and best practice in sub-Saharan Africa.

During the initial four-year programme, FOSCA plans to reach 220,000 smallholder farmers with income production improvement services, improve capacities of at least 70 FOs based on a set of criteria around gender, market orientation, smallholder membership, and income generation and expand the smallholder membership of 50 percent of the target FOs by 25-50 percent during the project term.

FOSCA will focus on the 4 priority-one countries of AGRA in this initial phase — Ghana, Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania — and gradually expand to other target countries such as Burkina Faso, Malawi, Niger, Rwanda and Zambia.

AGRA’s vision is of a food secure and prosperous Africa achieved through rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers who produce staple food crops.

AGRA hopes to reduce food insecurity by 50 percent in at least 20 countries, double the incomes of 20 million smallholder families, and put at least 30 countries on track for attaining and sustaining a uniquely African Green Revolution.

By Konrad Kodjo Djaisi

View the original article here

Send your news stories to [email protected] Follow News Ghana on Google News

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here