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According to Mr. Kudomor, the new funding has been made available after a sterling performance chalked by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in implementing GASIP.
He noted in a statement at the event, “this 105 million USD Programme will help us consolidate the current gains of GASIP and expand the activities to cover other value chains. IFAD is contributing 60 million USD.”
According to him, before the current management took over in April 2019, GASIP implementation status was 12%, a situation which was leading to a premature closure of the programme by IFAD for non-performance.
He however pointed out that, due to the hard work of management and staff, IFAD has now reclassified the status of the programme from “a non-performing programme to a performing programme.”
Giving reasons why IFAD had decided to reinvest in the programme, the Coordinator highlighted also that the “implementation status had increased to 78% within a spate of less than one year,” emphasizing that, “management did this by supporting the smallholder farmers. GASIP created shared values and opportunities within the value chains of rice, maize, soya and vegetables.”
In Ghana, smallholder farmers produce about 90% of the staple food such as maize and rice. And according to Mr. Kudomor, “this implies that they are the main actors in maintaining food security in Ghana.
According to him, “any investment in the food value chains of the smallholder farmer will cascade greatly in supporting the food systems in Ghana,” he stressed.
GASIP Background
GASIP came into operation in 2015. The Programme initial funding was a mix of IFAD’s $36 million loan and Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Program (ASAP) grant of $10 million. Initially, the Program was expected to close by June 2021.
However, Mr. Kudomor says “the Programme is being considered for extension so as to complete outstanding activities.”
He said over the last two years, GASIP has chalked some remarkable successes which include, partnering and working with agribusinesses to provide market access to smallholder farmers; subscribing them to receive market price information from the Ghana Commodity Exchange; supporting over 90,000 smallholder farmers in over 1,000 FBOs, and working with 80 agribusinesses.
He stated that in terms of equipment and machinery, 28 tractors, 600 power tillers and hand-held rice harvesters were distributed to selected small-holder farmer organizations, adding that access roads were provided to link farmers to markets
Loans from IFAD in Ghana are mainly targeted at supporting the reduction of poverty in line with the Ghanaian Government’s economic development strategy.
