Ghana plans to boost its agriculture sector in 2010 by increasing investments to support local production.

Minister for Finance and Economic planning Dr. Kwabene Duffuor said in his budget speech last week the government’s strategy is to modernise and enhance food security in the country.

Duffuor said promotion of crops such as mango, pineapples, cashew, sheanut and soya beans through large-scale commercial farming will be intensified.

A public private partnership project to establish a cocoa factory is also in the offing, and will increase production to 1,000,000 metrics tons by 2012.

The minister said improvement of roads in agricultural areas and provision of farming inputs is a priority. 

Ghana is also developing an Industrial Policy that will focus on nurturing small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMME’s). The Policy will enable the provision of business support and training, venture capital, micro-credit and export credit facilities to businesses.