The deputy minister for food and agriculture Hon. George Oduro reiterated to the fact that cashew has a lot of potentials for the development of the agric sector.
According to him, cashew has become a core part of the vision for the future of the sector, while still relatively young and faced with a few challenges.
He noted that cashew has already proven to be highly lucrative, providing about 53% of non-traditional crop export for Ghana in 2018. It would be unwise to ignore that potential, this is part of what has informed the setup of the Ghana Tree Crop Development Authority, which is still on track to be pass into bill this year.
Hon. Oduro mentioned that programme like this master training programme is helpful to develop the expertise and network that will help make the work that the Tree Crops Development Authority will do, relevant and impactful.
The possibilities and increased knowledge are very indispensable, so the government of Ghana is inspired by this partnership to ensure that it is ,on its part prepared to do what is possible to support the sector in order for our country to reap the benefits of cashew value chain.
He made it known when delivery his keynote address to officially open the 9th edition of master trainers programme of cashew value chain workshop held in peduase.
Hon Oduro pointed out that the collaboration with the Brazilian embassy through trilateral cooperation( of Ghana ,Germany and Brazal) to complement technical contributions and to apply specific knowledge, skills and experience of the tree countries, in 2018 led to the establishment of scion banks, distribution of over 150, 000 cashew grafts to farmers in several districts across Ghana , development of training materials, and the establishment of cashew trial plots.
According to him, the cooperation between public, private and donor partners are on the right path to strengthening the Ghanaian cashew sector as well as tapping the African cashew potentials.
In her remarks, the ACA Food Safety and Technical assistant manager, Dorcas Amoah hinted the need to acquire knowledge is essential for advancement of the cashew sector, with no doubt, cause cashew is gradually become the crop of the season.
She said Africa has remained the largest producer of raw cashew nuts over the last three years, accounting for more than 50% of the world’s production, though processing is still a challenge remaining at just 5.5% recorded in 2018.
The figure of 5.5% unimaginable at this level, has translated into substantial wealth and employment gains for millions of families and one can but imagine what the result will be if processing is further increased in Africa.
Madam Amoah was in a view that it is estimated that a further increase of 25% in value added cashew products would have a tremendous impact on poverty reduction, generating over US$100 million in household income for rural families. These statistics show the great potential of the cashew sector and is what spark off the desire to implement a program like MTP , to build capacities who will cause a lasting economic change in the industry.
Meanwhile executive director of ComCashew Ghana, madam Rita Weidinger, laments that this 9th edition constitutes 85 participants from 13 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Cote d’lvoire, Ghana , Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and more nationalities as aware of Mauritian and Germany in the group.
She is so excited to announce that 42% of the participants are women and committed to achieve an equal representation in the programme, which was aimed at joint efforts and policies have led to a consistent increase in the percentage of women in the programmme this year.
BY JOSEPH NANA YAW COBBINA