Government will construct 1000 metric tonne-capacity warehouses across the country to store foodstuffs in each of the 216 districts in the country, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has disclosed.

Mr Akufo-Addo said this at Goaso in the Brong Ahafo Region on Wednesday 19 April at the launch of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.

“Government intends to construct a 1000 metric tonne capacity warehouse in each of the 216 districts. The purpose of these warehouses will be to handle produce as well as to store the anticipated surpluses under the Planting for Food and Jobs campaign,” Nana Akufo-Addo stated.

According to him, to avoid post-harvest losses, his government will, in addition, expand feeder roads at food-growing areas.

“In the Asian experience, the existence of a relatively extensive road network that carries fertiliser and other inputs to the farms and carries farm output to the markets has set them apart from us in Ghana. Government will also expand the feeder road and farm track networks and mitigate post-harvest losses and also ensure foodstuffs are available to customers,” he noted.

The Planting for Food and Jobs campaign is aimed at making Ghana self-sufficient in food production and export.

The programme is akin to the Operation Feed Yourself campaign launched by the Acheampong regime in the 1970s.

The programme will be operating under five main components: supply of improved seedlings, provision of fertilisers, extension services, marketing for produce, and e-agriculture.