GH¢100m fund to drive agricultural transformation launched

The Ghana Agriculture Fund for Education and Transformation (GAFET) was launched by the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Eric Opoku, in Accra yesterday. The GH¢100 million fund aims to support the government's agricultural transformation agenda by building a sustainable national endowment to foster skills development, innovation, mechanisation, and agricultural enterprise.

GAFET plans to invest in institutions that train agricultural engineers, researchers, agribusiness leaders, and entrepreneurs. The fund will also serve as a platform for collaboration between the public and private sectors to develop the necessary human capital for agricultural transformation. Mr Opoku stressed that agricultural transformation requires not only investments in machinery, irrigation, and financing but also the quality of people trained to design, operate, maintain, and improve these systems.

He highlighted that the initiative forms an important human capital pillar of the government's Feed Ghana Programme, aimed at increasing food production, modernising farming, expanding irrigation and mechanisation, promoting agro-processing, reducing dependence on food imports, boosting exports, and creating sustainable jobs, particularly for young people and women.

The minister mentioned that many agricultural institutions have produced professionals for the agricultural value chain but require renewed investment in laboratories, workshops, demonstration farms, modern machinery, digital learning tools, and industry-responsive curricula. GAFET seeks to address this by supporting 21 beneficiary institutions through investments in various areas, including scholarships, internships, and industrial attachments.