President John Dramani Mahama will perform a sod-cutting ceremony on Friday to start the establishment of 50 Farmer Service Centres across the country.
The ceremony, to be performed at Afram Plains as part of the President’s Eastern Regional tour, will mark the beginning of a phased rollout of the project.
Delivering the keynote address to open the Ghana Agrotech Fair 2026 underway at the Black Star Square in Accra, President Mahama said the centres would provide mechanisation and extension support to farmers as part of broader efforts to modernise agriculture and drive economic transformation.
“Government intends to build 50 of these centres nationwide in the main agricultural producing areas. The first phase will cover 11 centres, and I’m breaking ground for the first one on Friday at the Afram Plains,” he announced to a gathering of farmers, agribusiness operators, innovators and policymakers.
One-stop shops
The President explained that the centres would serve as one-stop shops where registered farmers could access mechanisation services, including tractors, ploughing, harrowing, transportation, fertilisers and grain shellers.
He added that extension officers would be stationed at the centres to provide training and advisory support to farmers.
He also emphasised that agriculture must be reimagined from a sector of subsistence to one of opportunity and national prosperity.
“Agriculture is not merely about cultivation. Agriculture is also about productivity.
It is about value addition. It is about industrial development. It is about jobs and exports. And increasingly, agriculture is about technology and innovation,” President Mahama said.
Building capacity
The President stressed the strategic importance of local technology and manufacturing, warning that no nation could transform its agricultural economy while relying indefinitely on imported machinery.
“If Ghana is serious about agricultural transformation, we must deliberately build the capacity to design, to fabricate, adapt, maintain and scale agricultural technologies locally.
Supporting Ghanaian manufacturers of agricultural machinery and agri-processing equipment is not simply an industrial policy choice.
It is a strategic economic necessity,” he said.
Research, innovation
Touching on research and innovation, President Mahama revealed that he had engaged with scientists from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research who had made a breakthrough in local wheat production.
“The first demonstration farms that they have been able to plant produced between four and five tonnes of wheat per hectare.
This will help us in import substitution, because Ghana imports almost $400 million worth of wheat every year,” he disclosed.
The President urged the youth to see agriculture as a frontier of the future, requiring skills in engineering, software development, data science and logistics.
He called on all stakeholders, from farmers and entrepreneurs to financial institutions and universities, to play their part in the agricultural transformation agenda under the government’s Feed Ghana programme and the broader Agriculture for Economic Transformation initiative.
Economic transformation
The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana EXIM Bank, Sylvester Mensah, who welcomed guests to the event, underscored the fair’s role as a catalyst for long-term economic transformation.
He explained that the event, jointly organised by the bank and the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry at the behest of the President, was intended to be a regular platform to promote agrotech innovation and strengthen agribusiness.
“Primarily, it serves as a pedestal to showcase practical domestic agricultural technologies and solutions that can improve productivity across the entire agricultural value chain,” Mr Mensah stated, adding that it also aimed to connect farmers, innovators and investors to shape ideas into profitable business partnerships.
He further elaborated on the critical importance of agricultural technology in modernising the sector.
“Agricultural technology helps farmers produce more efficiently, reduce post-harvest losses, improve quality and increase incomes,” he noted.
He emphasised that technology made agriculture more attractive to young people by illustrating that the sector was not solely about traditional farming, “but also about engineering, innovation, logistics, data, manufacturing and entrepreneurship.”
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh