EMBRACE POVERTY REDUCTION PROGRAMMES (D/G, Saturday May 30, 2009. PAGE 22)

THE National Co-ordinator of the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP), Mr Roy Ayariga, has urged Ghanaians, especially those from the deprived areas, to take advantage of interventions such as the NRGP to improve their standard of living.
He stated that there were some people who could get out of their poverty through a little effort but instead of taking that bold step, they rather chose to look up to the government to bring them out of poverty.
Mr Ayariga made the call at the Upper East Regional launch of the NRGP at Bolgatanga.
Giving an overview of the programme, Mr Ayariga said the NRGP was being financed by African Development Bank (ADB) and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).
He said a total of $104.34 million would be spent on the project in the beneficiary regions, adding that the duration of the project was eight years.
Mr Ayariga explained that the scheme was aimed at developing agricultural commodity value chains to increase production in rural areas of the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions and contiguous savannah districts of Brong Ahafo.
He added that the new programme was also expected to provide production and marketing infrastructure, improve access to rural financial services and would fully integrate key private sector operators in the value chain.
The national co-ordinator emphasised that the overall objective of the programme was to achieve sustainable agricultural and rural livelihoods and food security for the rural poor in northern Ghana.
Mr Ayariga stressed that the goals of the programme were not different from those of the savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and other such interventions.
He added that they were all geared towards accelerated economic growth and social cohesion in the rural savannah areas of the country.
While calling on people in the beneficiary regions to embrace the programme and see it as theirs, Mr Ayariga also challenged members of the investment community in other parts of the country to partner farmers in the northern parts of the country to derive the desired benefits from the NRGP.
“The north offers the best opportunity both in terms of whether, land and water resources. This is the time for the investors to come up north in partnering the local farmers to produce crops, especially vegetables for export”, he said.
The Deputy East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni who launched the programme on behalf of the regional minister, said what the government was doing through the NRGP, was to provide the incentive framework for investors.
She emphasised that what was required was for farmers and the business community to seize the opportunity and help to save the people from abject poverty.
Mrs Awuni appealed to agricultural business firms operating in the south to move up north and partner with the hardworking and industrious farmers to do good business on the aegis of the NRGP.
“The fact that the north is the least developed places a huge responsibility and a sense of urgency that we have to work even harder so that we can progress at an accelerated pace to catch up with the rest of the country”, the deputy regional minister said.
Mrs Awuni also called on chiefs and landowners to willingly release land, especially to the youth and women when they approached them.