World Bank to invest over $150m into key areas of agric

The World Bank says it will invest an amount of over $150m into five key areas in the agricultural sector in Ghana.

The five key areas are agriculture research, modernization of the fisheries sector, commercial agriculture, livestock and small scale agriculture.

Ishac Diwan, the World Bank Country Director for Ghana disclosed this during a media interaction in Accra Thursday to discuss some of the bank’s programmes and the way forward into 2011.

According to the Mr Diwan, commercial agriculture will receive the highest amount of $100m. He indicated that this is to create more jobs and most especially to expand the agric field in order to balance the country’s economy since Ghana has found oil.

The fisheries sector will receive an amount of $50m. The amount will be used to fight illegal fishing along the coasts of the country as well as streamlining licensing regime, he said.

He added that this investment was to ensure that fishermen have a broad based knowledge about how fishermen can use modern technologies in their fishing activities.

The other areas in the sector to receive support are irrigation, livestock and small scale agriculture.

Mr. Diwan said some of these projects would be carried out in partnership with the
Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

By Ekow Quandzie
ghanabusinessnews.com