The Chief Executive Officer of the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA) has revealed that the Authority is ready to ensure that the vision of His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama ensuring Ghana’s self-sufficiency in the Red Gold, thus Oil Palm would be achieved.
He said this at the first National Oil Palm Multi-Stakeholder Roundtable Forum held at Chartered Institute of Bankers Hall, Accra.
The Forum with the theme; From Policy to Practice, the role of TCDA in Resetting Ghana’s Oil Palm Industry convened policy makers, researchers, finance, security officers, develop partners and agribusiness who designed a framework to augment achieving the vision.
The palm oil is the world-leading vegetable oil, accounting for roughly 37% of the total oil seed output.
It is a crop with an extraordinary strategic value, yielding more oil per hectare than any other major vegetable crop, and serving as a vital raw material for food processing, cosmetics, soap-making, biofuels, and diverse downstream industries, yet, the global market distribution presents just a diminutive for our region.
Bridging the palm oil production gap between Ghana producing 3.5%, Malaysia and Indonesia who produce 80, 90%, the government has targeted hundred thousand (100,000) hectares of new oil palm plantation to supplement the existing 360,000 hectares.
By 2032, he said, TCDA through the new national policy, should formalized palm oil production. The Authority has been designated as a key regulatory institution responsible for licensing, planning, production and data management.
According to Dr. Okrah, the goal of the TCDA is to focus on the ambition of expanding plantations, create sustainable jobs, reduce reliance on imported edible oils, and position Ghana as a competitive, respected player in the global palm oil market.
Enhancing the realization of the vision, he told Agric Today Media that TCDA’s mandate is to regulate and develop the value chain; the oil palm value chain.
“Our role, first, as a firm regulator. We are responsible for enforcing licensing, quality standards, industry data compliance, ensuring fair trading and transparent practices across the value chain”, he mentioned.
He stressed that TCDA act as an active enabler; meaning the Authority develop the capacity of the stakeholders by coordinating planting programs, facilitating access to certified seeds and seedlings, and opening the sector for sustainable investment opportunities and market accessibility.
With these stringent measures, capacity development, and the hectare expansion, the Authority is poised to contribute meaningfully to the actualization of Ghana’s self-sufficient in the Red Gold.
He called all the stakeholders and the general public to rally behind the vision to bridge the production gap to mitigate oil palm and vegetable oil importation to create jobs for the youth.
