Disaster Volunteer Corps assured of ready market for their seedlings

Vanderpuoe (E/R), April 1, GNA - The Director of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), Brigadier (rtd.) Joseph Odei, had assured Disaster Volunteer Corps (DVCs) engaged in the nursing of tree seedlings under the government's Forest Plantation Programme that all the seedlings they produced would be purchased by the Department of Forestry. He said the Department of Forestry had agreed to pay 300 cedis per seedling and all the money that would be realised from the sale would be given to the group, which nursed them after the deduction of any amount advanced to them during the production process.

Brig. Odei gave the assurance when he inspected a nursery of 100,000 Teak, Ofram and Cedrelia seedling being undertaken by the DVCs at Vanderpuoe, Akrofufu and Apedwa, all in the East Akim District on Wednesday, as part of his one week working tour of the Eastern Region. The visit had already taken him to the New Juaben Municipality, Fanteakwa and Yilo districts. He will also visit Kwahu South and Afram Plains districts.

Brig. Odei said NADMO had agreed to undertake the project to enable the organisation to assist DVCs in areas where the projects were sited to make some income in addition to what they got from their farming activities. He urged members of the DVCs engaged in the project to continue with their farming activities and promised to make available to them some food rations, T-shirts, Wellington Boots and farming equipments.

Brig. Odei said under the second phase of the project, the Department of Forestry would employ the services of individual volunteers to plant the trees and nurture them to the stage that they could be left to survive on their own. The East Akim District Chief Executive, Mr Emmanuel Victor Asihene, assured the members of the DVCs of the support of the District Assembly and urged them to put in their best.