British High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin will today (Thursday) in Tamale officially launch the Market Development Programme for Northern Ghana (MADE) in agribusiness and investment.
Funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), the first phase duration is five years.
Through the MADE programme, trustworthy aggregators and nucleus farmers will support smallholder farmers to shift from subsistence to commercial agriculture.
The support will include extension and tractor services, subsidized fertilizer and well established demonstration farms.
It is estimated that 78,000 smallholder and rural small scale entrepreneurs will benefit from the programme.
Ahead of the maiden event, MADE’s team leader, Augustine Adongo highlighted the programme’s prospects at a media interaction.
He said the programme will adopt the Market Systems Development Approach to achieve its objective in the Savannah Ecological zone, hence its uniqueness.
He anticipated that a successful implementation of the first phase could help reduce the widening socio-economic development disparity between southern and northern Ghana.
Augustine Adongo emphasized that the MADE programme will focus on poverty reduction and creating business opportunities for smallholder farmers and rural small scale entrepreneurs within the Savannah Ecological zone.
According to him, there is enough evidence that some rural poor are already benefiting from the programme since its inception in 2014.
–
By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/Citifmonline.com/Ghana