The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, has forecast that Ghana will be flooded with a bumper harvest of tomatoes within the next three to four months.
This comes as the government ramps up its strategic initiatives to drastically scale up domestic cultivation and slash the nation’s heavy reliance on foreign imports.
Appearing before Parliament’s Committee on Assurances on Thursday, 9 July, the Minister explained that a string of targeted interventions rolled out under the state’s agricultural agenda are on track to exponentially boost tomato yields nationwide.
In a decisive move to tackle the perennial headache of post-harvest losses, the Minister revealed that the government is establishing a robust off-take system designed to secure a ready market for local growers.
He noted that key tomato processing firms are already being engaged to absorb the projected massive surplus.
Furthermore, the government is pouring investments into solar-powered boreholes to provide reliable, year-round irrigation, which will empower farmers to cultivate crops well outside the conventional rainy season.
“We have put in place a lot of measures and within the next three to four months, the results will be there for everyone to see. This is another big assurance. We are anticipating a glut of tomatoes in the coming months and are thinking about how we can get processors to off-take from our farmers. We are doing a lot of solar-powered boreholes across the country,” he said.
The Minister remained highly optimistic that these aggressive measures will revitalise domestic tomato farming, unlock lucrative opportunities for local producers, and steadily curb Ghana’s import bill while fortifying the country’s overall food security goals.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
