Techiman, 3 September 2022 (TDI): United States Agency for the International Development, USAID’s Ghana Mission Director, Kimberly Rosen, announced $2.5 million to support the Grow Ghana initiative.
This is the initiative of Yara International. The announcement was made during Rosen’s visit to the Bono East Region. Adding to that, USAID has joined hands with Yara International to make sure the delivery of 360’000, 50 kg bags of YaraMila Actyva Fertilizers to needy farmers.
USAID is investing $2.5 million in Ghana to support the Grow Ghana Initiative. This USAID funding will support the delivery of 360,000 bags of YaraMila Actyva fertilizer to reduce smallholder farmers’ input costs by 1/3. https://t.co/p1C8uZbDzI
— USAID (@USAID) September 1, 2022
Furthermore, this support will ensure the availability of affordable high-quality fertilizers to Ghanaian farmers. About 100,000 small-holder farmers will benefit from this. It will be a great step forward in resolving the nation’s food security concerns.
Details of the Grow Ghana Initiative
The Covid-19 pandemic brought a crisis around the globe crumbling economies and subsequently, the Ukraine crisis added fuel to the fire.
Moreover, while speaking at the launch of “Grow Ghana” in Tema, The Managing Director of Yara Ghana mentioned, “The COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have compromised access to affordable fertilizer everywhere, hindering farmers’ ability to feed their communities, and threatening food security across the world. It is due to these reasons that Yara is assisting farmers in this project.”
Moreover, nearly 70 percent of Ghanaian farmers are smallholder farmers. Most of them were unable to afford high-quality fertilizers due to high prices. This could lead to low-quality crops and food shortages.
Along these lines, this will in turn escalate malnutrition and food insecurity in Ghana. To protect the health and economic conditions of the people, it will reduce the input costs for the farmers by one-third.
The Grow Ghana project includes demonstration fields and farmer training programs to ensure the best farming practices. Furthermore, this project is planned to continue for three years. It will feed a million people and will strengthen food security.
Lastly, USAID has taken another step to eradicate world hunger with grass root measures. For this initiative, it has partnered with African Fertilizer Agribusiness Partnership (AFPA) and Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AFPA).
