6.10
Increase
Overseas
Presence
in
Key
Investments
Markets.
Increasing
overseas
presence
in
key
investments
countries
is
aimed
at
attracting
investment
from
such
nations.
Ghana
has
established
trade
desks
in
India
and
China
which
have
over
the
years
increased
their
investment
drives
in
the
ECOWAS
Sub-‐region
6.11
Development
of
Land
Banks
The
objective
of
a
Land
Bank
System
is
to
facilitate
access
to
land
by
developers.
The
Ministry
of
Water
Resources,
Works
and
Housing
has
acquired
50,000
acres
of
land
to
feed
the
National
Housing
Programme.
6.12
Low
Agricultural
Productivity
and
Over
Reliance
on
Rainfall
The
use
of
traditional
implements
and
the
reliance
solely
on
rain
as
the
source
of
water
for
farming
are
not
compatible
with
high
yields/output.
Hence,
the
Ministry
of
Food
and
Agriculture
(MoFA)
is
vigorously
promoting
the
use
of
farm
mechanisation
to
reduce
the
drudgery
of
farming
activities
and
improve
productivity.
To
this
end,
the
Ministry
established
Letters
of
Credit
for
the
importation
of
tractors
to
augment
the
fleet
available
in
the
country.
The
2007
Annual
Report
of
the
GPRS
II
revealed
that,
between
2005
and
2006,
800
new
tractors
were
imported
from
India.
The
report
also
indicated
that,
MoFA
imported
500
pieces
of
power
tillers
and
200
low
capacity
tractors
from
the
Czech
Republic
to
cater
for
small
scale
farmers.
6.13
Establishment
of
Mechanisation
Centres
MoFA
also
recognises
the
fact
that
most
farmers
lack
the
financial
ability
to
purchase
and
own
farm
machinery.
Consequently
the
ministry
established
9
mechanisation
centres
from
where
farmers
can
rent
from
a
pool
of
farm
machinery
to
improve
farmers
access
to
these
machinery.
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