The President of the Republic of Ghana Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo as part of his tour of the Northern region over the weekend visited a 25,000 acre farm belonging to SAMAK Agribusiness Organization.
The Co-founders, Samuel Sarpong and Akshay Sharma speaking on the objective of the farm to the President in their welcome address explained that, SAMAK Agribusiness brings together people and skills needed to build a robust supply chain of agricultural production through sound agronomic practices, mechanization services and training.
Mr. Akshay, who is also the Commercial Director for SAMAK, added that, the firm also aims at assisting and empowering smallholder farmers and communities in Northern Ghana to be food secure and for this year alone, over 1,000 acres of maize, 500 acres of Soybeans and 500 acres of rice have been planted so far and would be ready for harvest in the few months to come.
“Our focus is to create opportunities for economic growth and improved human wellbeing of the farming population and all individuals in the North and Ghana at large” He said
They said, SAMAK’s vision is to lead the way in using agriculture as a tool to curb food insecurity and intends to explore or tap into the sectors of the agricultural industry that have been untapped therefore our plead to Mr. President is that we need infrastructure like a dam or a reservoir to be constructed here at the SAMAK farms and from there, we can take charge of providing the pipeline, providing the drip irrigation, and providing the contracts to the farmers on the in grower scheme.
“In order to scale up, I think the only way is if the government comes in and supports mainly in developing the infrastructure that will help more in production and improving the agricultural sector rather than just providing them the inputs. But then if we have the water source which is the main ingredient for any production of crop, if we have a reservoir or a dam where it can supply water throughout the year instead of depending only on the rainfall season a farmer is able to have two to three crops so immediately the impact of the infrastructure will be by improving the income by three times in a year rather than just one crop a year” Mr. Sarpong exaplained
The President however assured the management and staff of SAMAK and the people of Yamo-Karaga that the request put before him would be granted as part of his One Village One Dam program which intends to aid agricultural production thus reducing poverty in the northern ecological zone and improving their livelihoods.
The SAMAK farm which is located at Yamo-Karaga in the Karaga district of the Northern region, deals in the production of basic food materials like rice, maize, soybean and cassava with investors from Turkey, UK, UAE, and also the domestic market here in Ghana as well.
By Prince Kwame Tamakloe – Kesmi News
