Government Urged To Insure ‘planting For Food and Jobs’ Project

he planting for food and jobs program is an initiative by the Ministry of food and Agriculture.

The Ghana Agriculture Insurers Pool is urging government to insure its planting for food and jobs initiative to sustain the program. The planting for food and jobs program is an initiative by the Ministry of food and Agriculture.

In the 2017 budget, the government earmarked GH?560 million for the initiative which is expected to create over 70, 000 jobs.

However, the General Manager of the Ghana Agriculture Insurance Pool GAIP, Ali Mohammed Kato, believes the project needs insurance to ensure sustainability.

He said “One side that government has to look at is agriculture insurance, because in Ghana we are under rain fed agriculture so if the farmer is given the seeds and the subsidized fertilizer and the crop fails what do you do? Pest attacks like the fall armyworm infestation too is devastating.

So if we have all this money invested in the project and there is no investment in insurance that means the government will have to come back the following year and go for more money to start again. Whereas if there is insurance at least some parts of this investment could be salvaged though compensation from the insurance company.”

The Ghana Agricultural Insurance Pool (GAIP) is made up of 17 insurance companies and operates under the Ghana Insurers association. The pool provides agricultural insurance for farmers and financiers of agriculture in Ghana. The General Manger of the pool also added agric insurance is key to ensure food security.

According to GAIP, claims on drought formed a huge chunk of their claims portfolio mounting up to GH?159,000 for the year 2015 alone.

He therefore advocated that more efforts should also be directed to promoting irrigation in farming.

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