The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) will ensure that women farmers in the Upper East Region have access to mechanization services to improve on their productivity, Mr Francis Ennor, the Upper East Regional Director, MoFA, has said.

Even though tractors are limited in the region and their services demand cash down payment, the Director encouraged women farmers in the region who require such services to join identifiable groups to be able to access plough services.

“We can facilitate tractor services for them to plough their fields and pay after the farming season, if they lack the financial ability to do so now, because we appreciate the efforts women put in the agricultural value chain”, he said.

The Regional Director who was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga, said to beef up the few tractors in the region, the Ministry had arranged for some multi- purpose power tillers to be sold to interested farmers.

In his advice to farmers for this year’s cropping season, he said the early onset of rains gave a lot of hope that the yields will be good and urged the farmers to look for the subsidized government interventions for seed and fertilizer that would help them increase production.

In response to queries by some Civil Society Organizations who had criticized government’s agricultural intervention, specifically on low access to farm inputs, extension services, technology and low gender budgeting, the Agricultural Director indicated that no specific budget was available for women or men but the outfit was prepared to provide the needed support to boost women’s farming efforts in the region to improve on productivity.

Meanwhile a study conducted by the Ghana Trade Livelihood Coalition (GTLC), indicated that access to seed by farmers in 2019 as compared to that of 2018 dropped whilst access to fertilizer rose from three per cent to 82 per cent.

In terms of access to credit, the report indicated that there was an increase as only four per cent of farmers had access to credit facilities in 2018 while nine per cent benefitted in 2019.

The report called for increased attention on easy access to seed, extension services and science and technology, to meet the demands of modernized Agriculture.