The Agriculture Ministry has guaranteed that all agriculture colleges across the country would receive a budgetary allocation each year.
This according to the Ministry, is in line with efforts to keep the legacy of Modernising Agriculture in Ghana.
According to Deputy Agric Minister, Yaw Frimpong Addo, maintaining facilities of these institutions is the only way to ensure that policies like Technical Education Development for Modernised Agriculture in Ghana (TEDMAG) do not die out.
Speaking at the final stakeholder meeting of the TEDMAG project, Mr. Frimpong Addo indicated that the project has been a success and government will continue to allocate funds to agriculture colleges.
“Once these facilities have been upgraded, it is up to the ministry to put it in the annual budget for maintenance. This is important because if we’re able to maintain these facilities, it will be with us for a long time and that would be good for country,” he said.
The Government of Canada in 2017 implemented the TEDMAG Project. The 135-million-dollar project was to revamp curriculum at agric colleges and complement Ghana’s modernising agriculture agenda.
Head of Cooperation at the High Commission of Canada in Ghana, Kathleen Flynn-Dapaah emphasised that the TEDMAG project prioritised empowering women along the agriculture value chain.
“The governments of Canada and Ghana have been working under this project to promote gender equality. Through our partnership with government of Ghana and non-governmental organisations, women in agriculture in Ghana are empowered in various ways. They have higher levels of financial autonomies allowing them to buy lands, to purchase rudimentary agro-processing machines, to expand their agro-processing activities and with the extra resources to improve their homes,” she intimated.
One of the beneficiaries, Cedonia Akanpisi, a student of Damongo Agriculture College shared how the project has impacted her life.
“TEDMAG has helped in changing the negative perception of agric. They say agric is the backbone of an economy but I believe it’s the oxygen of an economy and TEDMAG has contributed in impacting great zeal and passion for agriculture,” she said.
The Technical Education Development for Modernised Agriculture in Ghana Project ran from 2017 to 2022.