Mofa to Develop a Database System for Agriculture Sector

The Ministry of Food and Agriculture, in collaboration with its development partners, African Development Bank (AfDB) and Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), is developing a database system for the agriculture sector in Ghana.

The database system is expected to help know farmers and their engagement in the different areas of production such as crop, fisheries and livestock productions in the country.

Additionally, the system will also address the relationships between climate, soil type and farm management systems, including irrigation.

The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, who made these known in an address delivered on his behalf at the opening of a stakeholder validation workshop on a Strategic Plan for Agriculture and Rural Statistics in Accra, last week, noted that the agriculture sector was a key driver of the economy, supporting the livelihood of more than 70 per cent of the rural population and contributing about 20 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

An accurate database system, he said, was, therefore, very necessary and would be instrumental in enhancing planning and facilitating the production of accurate national accounts; and for monitoring the performance of interventions in the sector, such as the government's Flagship Programme 'Planting for Food and Jobs.'

Dr Akoto said the database system would help the agric sector fully understand and appreciate situations and to measure the underlying factors that would lead to developing solutions that were evidence-based to address challenges in the sector.

To achieve this, he said, researchers would be deployed to the district levels to collect data on agriculture activities.

Dr Akoto said the training would be enough to evaluate the National Agricultural Statistics System, identify problems and propose strategic objectives to implement strategy to achieve qualitative and quantitative change in agricultural statistics.

Speaking at the workshop, the lead National Consultant for the Strategic Plan for Agriculture and Rural Statistics, Mr Christian Amedo, said the sub-sector working groups such as forestry and logging, fisheries, crop and livestock personnel would identify weaknesses that existed in the generation of data in their outfit.

Mr Amedo said the strategy at the end of the day would provide a framework and methodology to improve the availability and quality of national and international agricultural and food statistics.

Source: ISD (Bagbara Tanko)

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