The Minister for Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto has lamented bitterly that he inherited a ministry from the erstwhile John Mahama Administration that virtually had no extension officers to serve as a link between the scientists and farmers in the country in 2017.

Dr Afriyie Akoto was supposed to inherit 4,400 extension officers from his predecessor Fifi Fiavi Kwetey but only 1,560 were working under the ministry, whereas about 80% of them were due to go on pension within two to three years time.

“So virtually there was no extension. So virtually there was no extension?” he moaned. “I made especial presentation to cabinet to convince my colleagues that there is an emergency and they should allow me to employ 3,000 extension officers. They allowed me to hire 2700, which we very quickly deployed to the field and with that followed the scale of new employment, NABCO, which produced another 2,000 extension officers. So we were back on track to the extent that every district in the country today has adequate extension services.”

The minister was also confronted with how to supply adequate quality seeds to farmers, hence to rely on our neighbouring countries like Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire to supplement the little seeds that were available.

Dr Afriyie Akoto lashed out at the previous government during a swearing in ceremony of Governing Board of the National Seed Council in Accra on Wednesday.

The board is chaired by the president’s nominee, Josiah Wobil, works with the Council for Scientific Industrial Research Research (CSIR), while the members are Prof Moses Brandford Mochiah, CSIR, Dr Solomon Gyan Ansah, director of Crop services, MoFA, Bentsil Quaye, Ag Director of Pant Protection & Regulation Service Directorate, MoFA, Alhaji Nuhu Salifu Orison, Seed Growers Association of Ghana, Seifu Mubarak Abdulai, National Farmers’ Association, Dr Michael Yao Osae, Biotechnology & Nuclear Agriculture Research Institution, Samuel Boadu and Ing. Dr Veronica Boakye Kufuor.