N/R soldiers go into farming

Cattle (left), Maize Farm (right)

The Northern Regional Command of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has re-launched and revived the defunct GAF Farming Unit, which was at the forefront of national food production, evacuation, and distribution in Ghana under the code-name 'Operation Feed Yourself.'

The reactivation of the unit is to support food production in the country, to complement the efforts of Ghana's subsistence farmers.

The policy also seeks to give a boost to farming activities in all the garrisons of the Ghana Armed Forces.

At a ceremony to re-launch the GAF Farming Unit for garrisons in the Northern Region, including the 6th Infantry Battalion and Airborne Force, Air-Vice Marshall Michael Sampson-Oje, Commander of the Airborne Force, hinted that GAF was ready to offer the requisite boost to the Ghana's agricultural sector, to ensure sustainable food security.

According to him, the Farming Unit would undertake a number of activities, including food crop farms, animal husbandry, poultry, fish ponds, and horticulture among others, as its contribution to the nation.

He noted that the farm project would be handled by a special unit devoted to agricultural production, called the Ghana Armed Forces Farms (GAFF), whose operations would spread across the garrisons, where high commercial agricultural turnovers would be achieved.

Air-Vice Marshall Sampson-Oje explained that the GAF high command had decided to revive the unit to assist in any security challenges that might occur in the wake of any food shortage.

The agricultural programme, he said, would also serve as an alternate means of providing adequate food and meat for service personnel, and as well generate additional income for the GAF.

He emphasised that the effort was very necessary to help Ghana to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG 1) – 'eradicating, or at least, halving poverty and hunger by the year 2015.'

'The focus of the policy is to engage in practical agriculture, with the view to increasing production in local staples, commercial crops/plants, and breeding of animals, birds, and fish in commercial quantities.

'For instance, the farming activities would cover areas such as cassava, plantain, yams, maize, sorghum, millet, rice, beans, potatoes, groundnuts, mushroom and vegetables.

Others are, oil palm, coconuts, pineapples, cashew, mangoes, oranges and animal rearing in such areas as cattle, goats and sheep, poultry, piggery, rabbits, grass-cutters, snails and bee-keeping. The rest include fish farming, food processing, aqua culture in general, and afforestation programmes on vacant Armed Forces lands.'

Commendably enough, the Unit's farming activities would also offer practical lessons to officers for their future engagement as commercial farmers, or backyard gardeners during retirement.

Besides, the programme also stands to offer technology transfer and entrepreneurial development skills in rural agro-business to retirees.

Meanwhile, the Northern Region is endowed with vast fertile lands suitable for agricultural activities, and it would therefore, put the Northern Region GAF ahead of the rest of the garrisons in other regions.