The Ghana Commercial Agricultural Project (GCAP) has linked over 31 farmers to 10,000 out-growers nationwide and supported them with a grant facility of US$9.07 million dollars to improve on food productivity.

Mr Osei Owusu-Agyeman, the Project Coordinator who disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Techiman in the Bono East Region explained that the project seeks to empower particularly rural farmers to engage in commercial farming activities.

GCAP is being implemented by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) through a project implementation Unit (PIU) with US$150 million credit support from the World Bank, and US$16 million grant from the USAID.

The four-year project, expected to end in 2021, is aimed at improving agriculture productivity of both smaller and nucleus farms in selected project intervention areas with a specific focus on maize, rice, soya beans and fruits and vegetables.

Currently, the project is funding rehabilitation of major irrigation facilities as well as strengthening the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) and the Irrigation Company of Upper Region (ICOUR).

The project is to promote inclusive commercial agriculture that would enhance the involvement of small-holder and out-grower farmers.

Mr Owusu-Agyeman indicated that the project had also rolled out key intervention strategies including land preparation and development, construction of warehouses, farm roads, irrigations systems, electricity extension to modernize agriculture.

Rehabilitation and completion of Tono, Kpong, and Kpong left bank dams, he explained, were in progress, scheduled to be completed by the middle of the year saying, on completion, the dams would make farming more attractive.

This would greatly promote the export of food and widen the nation’s foreign exchange earnings, Mr Osei-Owusu added.