Ghana is making efforts to use its potential for cash crops to cope with the disruptions to cocoa output brought on by climatic disasters.
Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, who outdoored the five year plan to be implemented by the Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA), said he initiative it to help develop a five year framework and implementation plan to focus on growing cashew, oil-palm, coconut, rubber, shea and mango as a climate mitigation measure and to boost the country’s foreign exchange revenue earnings.
These six tree crops have the potential to generate about 16 billion USD in foreign exchange revenue for Ghana by 2030.
According to the authorities, the tree crop subsector offers exceptional chances for economic diversification by increasing chances for job creation, poverty reduction, food security, foreign currency receipts, and overall contribution to Gross Domestic Product.
The Minister said for more than a century, Ghana had relied on cocoa as a major cash crop and a source of foreign exchange earnings and said it was time to diversify the sector.
Story by Jaynel Selby Jones
