80 warehouses built, others ongoing to support farmers – Bawumia

As part of efforts to better the agricultural sector, the government has so far built about 80 warehouses across the country to enable proper food storage.

This, according to the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, forms part of the government’s promise of building a warehouse in each district in Ghana.

Many farmers, over time, have complained of incurring huge debts because they are unable to sell their produce on time, while there are no warehouses to store the produce until they get buyers.

Speaking at the government’s third town hall meeting and results fair held at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Science on Tuesday, August 18, the Vice President said the full warehouse project, when completed, will provide more than 80,000 metric tonnes storage capacity across the country.

He noted, “To support the Planting for Food and Jobs Program, the government has put in place significant infrastructure over the last three years. Government embarked on the construction of 80 warehouses under the One District One Warehouse Initiative each with a capacity of 1,000 metric tonnes throughout the country as part of measures to ensure food security, reduce post-harvest loses, guarantee farmer incomes and improve marketing. These warehouses are equipped with dryers, laboratories and solar power which are directly under the One District One Warehouse Initiative. When completed, the program will provide a storage capacity of about 100,000 metrics across the country.”

He further disclosed that the government has set up three greenhouse training centres purposed to train Ghanaian youth in vegetable production.

“Government has also established three Greenhouse Training Centres with commercial components, each on a five-hectare piece of land, at Dawhenya, Akumadan, and Bawjiase. At the end of December 2019, the three centres had, together, trained 296 graduates in greenhouse vegetable production. In addition, a total of 180 graduates have been targeted for training in 2020. SO we’ve had 100 greenhouses constructed and they are going to change so much in the agricultural sector,” he noted.

In 2019, the government set out an ambitious target to construct at least 80 warehouses across the country.

The Minister of Special Development Initiatives, Mavis Hawa Koomson, was confident that 50 of such storage facilities would have been achieved by August last year.

Each of the 1,000-tonne capacity warehouses would contain an office accommodation, seed cleaners, solar dryers and weighing scales.