On this day, 12 March 1912, Polish Jewish resistance activist Ala Gertner was born. While a slave labourer at a munitions factory under Nazi occupation, Gertner stole gunpowder which she smuggled to prisoners at Auschwitz Birkenau to build bombs which they used to blow up Crematorium IV and kill several SS officers. Gertner and three other women were executed for their role in the uprising in 1945. This is a great article about the resistance at Auschwitz: https://ift.tt/2tGl2Mbhttps://ift.tt/2HfBmJI
He attributed the high level of progress in the production of the two crops in the country to increased demand by farmers for certified seeds and fertilizers as a result of the Government’s subsidy on the inputs.
He said from a national average of 20 percent self-sufficiency for soya and 50 percent for rice before 2017, Ghana was now heading towards self-sufficiency in the production of the two crops.
He said under the Government’s flagship programme “Planting for Food and Jobs” (PFJ), certified seeds usage increased from 4,400 metric tonnes (MT) in 2017, to 6,800MT in 2018 and a target of 15,000MT in 2019 was likely to be exceeded, as a result of increasing demand from farmers.
“Fertilizer usage under the programme has also increased from 121,000MT in 2017 to a target of 331,000MT in 2019, with the national fertilizer use per hectare increasing from 8kg per hectare in 2017 to about 20kg per hectare in 2018,” Dr. Akoto remarked on Monday at the Peer to Peer Learning Event of the new Leadership for Agriculture Platform (L4AG).
“For the first time, Ghana exported over 150,000MT of foodstuffs, mainly cereals, to neighbouring countries. This has resulted in the creation of some one million jobs in the rural economy.”
The forum was organised by the African Development Bank (AfBD), with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).
Since 2017, the AfDB’s L4AG Platform has brought high-level and influence government and private sector leaders together for dialogue, advocacy, and policy formulation to strengthen Africa’s agriculture sector. The L4AG Platform has been redesigned to be more effective, with additional focus on change champions and priority themes.
The Learning Event brought a large team of Ministers from other African countries to peer review and share their peculiar experiences relating to agriculture and its role in our respective economies.
Dr Akoto said agriculture in Ghana was recognised as the mainstay of the economy with a greater impact on poverty reduction, compared to other sectors.
He said since 2017, Government had been prosecuting its agricultural transformation agenda by rolling out several modules under the PJF.
