Vice President John Dramani Mahama has said the government had outlined measures to support farmers to become exporters of food at the end of the farming season.
Some of the measures include increased subsidies on fertilizers, provision of more tractors and creation of Agricultural Mechanical Centres where tractor and other services would be given to farmers.
The Vice President, who spoke to journalists in an interview in his office, said apart from making Ghana an exporter of food, the measures were also geared towards making farmers important and rich personalities in society.
"In most developed countries, farmers are the richest and the most important personalities, but in our own culture here, farmers are poor and
despised because of poor farming practices."
Vice President Mahama said the Green Revolution, an organisation that supplies improved seeks to farmers and other seed management companies had been contracted to supply farmers with improved seeds and technical
expertise and gave the assurance that with all these in place, food production would increase.
"Last year we had a surplus of 145,000 metric tonnes of maize with a 30 percent increase in rice production. The President and I are engaged in farming and hope that others will take to farming in addition to whatever they are doing."
He said Mahindra Company Limited, an Indian automobile company, had been contracted to supply Ghanaian farmers with tractors while the government was working with some other Indian companies to set up a fertilizer company.
The Vice President said the World Food Programme and Food and Agricultural Organization had expressed interest in buying food from
Ghanaian farmers to export to other countries if there are surpluses and urged farmers to take advantage of the opportunity to increase production.
Touching on the country's oil and gas find, he said although the government was not going to place all its hopes on it, proceeds that would
accrue from the industry would be used for infrastructural development.
"No country can develop properly without adequate infrastructure and that is why we as a government will prioritize it with oil and gas revenue.