AGRICULTURE

ADANSI S: 214 farmer groups register for Planting for Food and Jobs Programme
A total of 214 Farmer Groups have registered to take part in the Planting for Food and Jobs programme of the government.

Date Created : 11/30/2017 1:41:52 AM : Story Author : Kusi-Obuadum Brobbey/Ghanadistricts.com

The total membership of the group is 1,027; this consists of 752 males and 275females. The programme is to cover a total of 1,070 hectors of land.

The main crops to be cultivated by these groups are maize and rice. 255 farmers are cultivating maize while 815 farmers are into rice cultivation.

According to Mr Obrien Nyarko the District Director of Ministry of Agriculture, the farmers will be supplied with improved seeds, subsidised fertilizer which they are to pay 25% of the price affront to an account ad Agriculture Development Bank before they are supplied with the fertilizer.

He said the farmers will be giving free Extension Services from the District Agriculture Office.

To make the marketing of the produce easier for the farmers the government will institute special marketing centres where the farmers will sell their produce at stabilised prices.

The farmers who participated in the programme have expressed gratitude to the government for the initiative.

The Chief Farmer of Adansi South District Nana Akwasi Addae has expressed his joy for the government's initiatives and plans to boost agricultures in the country; and also trying to make agriculture attractive to the youth. The 65 years old Chief Farmer remarked that "Now most of the farmers in Ghana are very old we need the youth to take the mantle from us; this can only happen if the government makes agriculture easy and prosperous to attract the youth".

The government in the 2017 budget statement initiated an agriculture programme dubbed Planting for Food and Jobs which is to help farmers and every Ghanaian to embark on farming either on a large scale or in the form of a backyard garden to bring food sufficiency to reduce the imports of food into the country.