The 2024 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has assured cashew farmers in the country to be rest assured that his government will do more to boost the sector when he becomes President.
Addressing the chiefs and people of Nsawkaw in the Tain Constituency of the Bono Region, Dr Bawumia said his government will make sure that cashew becomes a major cash crop like cocoa.
The action, he said, will include establishing factories which will process the crop to avoid wastage.
“My priority as President will be to improve Agriculture since over 60% of the adult population are into farming, it is for this reason that I want to use the country’s money and technology to improve farming and cashew farming will be one main area that I would improve. I will introduce the same techniques we have used to improve Cocoa into cashew farming and establishing a factory for processing our cashew will be key in this drive…,” he said.
The Vice President said the Tree Crop development Authority Bill, when passed into law, will guarantee some certainty in the price of cashew.
The bill has been approved by Cabinet and is expected to facilitate the setting up of the Ghana Tree Crop Development Authority (GTCDA).
The authority will be the statutory body that will regulate the country’s tree crops sub-sector.
Both the draft regulation and the bill will be put before Parliament at the latest by June 5, 2019.
The bill and the draft regulations are expected to be passed by the close of 2019.
