President John Dramani Mahama detailed ambitious agriculture and education initiatives in his State of the Nation Address, emphasizing a shift to “irrigation-based farming” for year-round production and climate resilience, alongside expanded tertiary access to bolster human capital.
Under the Feed Ghana program, 413 institutions, from basic schools and prisons to armed forces, public universities, and faith-based organizations, are actively farming staples. The initiative promotes home gardening to cut food costs and improve nutrition, with processes underway for two new megadams, rehabilitation of eight existing dams, and 250 solar-powered boreholes in northern and Brong Ahafo regions.
Major schemes at Tanoso, Ashaiman, and Aveyime are being rehabilitated, alongside development of over 1,300 hectares of inland valleys for rice. A $20 million agro input distribution project targets 50,000 households, including 30,000 women and youth, across 12 districts in six regions, distributing inputs for maize, rice, soya beans, cowpeas, groundnuts, and vegetables, plus support for poultry and certified seeds.
Mechanization efforts include procurement of 660 tractors and 400 combine harvesters, with construction starting this year with 11 Farmer Service Centres offering land preparation, storage, inputs, extension services, and equipment leasing for smallholders. The first centre launches in Afram Plains within two weeks. To bridge extension gaps, 540 motorbikes have been procured, 150 already distributed, alongside 400 district coordinators and enrollment of 10,000 youth in a four-year National Service Agripreneur program, with 3,000 already posted and set for absorption into permanent roles.
Private-sector linkages feature a GHS 154 million Ghana-Italy project for a 10,000-hectare irrigated farm producing rice, maize, soya, and tomatoes exclusively for local markets. Additional facilities include rice mills in Upper East and West, poultry feed plants in the Ashanti Region, cashew and onion processing in Bono East, and a 40-ton-per-day soya plant in Northern Ghana. The shea industry gains from secured export contracts.
A poultry farm-to-table project aims to slash annual imports worth $300-400 million, with 50 anchor farmers producing four million birds, 500 SMEs targeting three million, and a backyard program for another three million, prioritizing women and youth. The Nkoko Nkitinki component reaches 60,000 households, building on a pilot distributing 720,000 birds to 13,000 farmers in 12 districts. Mahama recently commissioned a processing factory in Bechem.
In education, 2025 fulfilled manifesto pledges, including the no-fees policy benefiting 152,000 first-year tertiary students, projected to rise to 220,000 this year, in partnership with the Student Loan Trust Fund. Law students can now access loans, and free tertiary education covers all eligible persons with disabilities.Tying these to the “Building Prosperity, Restoring Hope” independence theme, Mahama affirmed the Reset Ghana and Africa Reset agendas are “working,” placing the nation “on the runway” for inclusive growth.
