- Agriculture Minister announces nationwide use of DRIP equipment for farm
- All districts to receive fuel to operate machinery for rural connectivity
- Minister intervenes to stop new contracts, urging use of available resources
The Minister for Food and Agriculture, Eric Opoku, has announced the rollout of heavy-duty machinery under the District Road Improvement Programme (DRIP) to begin the construction of farm access roads nationwide.
Speaking to journalists in Kumasi on Sunday, June 15, Mr. Opoku stated that fuel would be supplied to every district to ensure that the DRIP equipment is fully operational and used as intended — to improve road links between farmlands and nearby communities.
To facilitate this effort, the government plans to temporarily pause major road construction projects in rural areas so that focus can be placed on using DRIP machinery for access roads.
“Our plan is to allocate funds to each district to fuel the machines and use the available equipment to construct access roads. This will significantly ease the movement of food from farms to surrounding communities,” Mr. Opoku said.
He further revealed that although some officials had initiated processes to award new road construction contracts in rural areas, he intervened to stop them.
“Just last week, there were efforts to award contracts for rural road projects. I instructed that these be halted because we already have the equipment. What’s needed now is fuel to get the machines working,” he added.
