Ghanaians Urged To Embrace Planting For Food And Jobs

The Deputy Minister for Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr. George Oduro, has urged Ghanaians to embrace the Planting for Foods and Jobs initiative which was launched by the President, Nana Akuffo Addo at Goaso in the Asunafo South District of the Brong-Ahafo region in April, 2017.

Speaking on the Space FM Morning Flight 877 show, hosted by Dickson Smith on Thursday, Mr. Oduro said “the aim of the programme is to plant more foods for local consumption and export some to other neighboring countries and to the rest of the world”.

The deputy minister said, if there is abundance of food in the country, the prices of food are less and it brings major relief to the people.

Mr. Oduro said the programme involves the scientific way of doing agriculture which lead to increase in farmers yields yearly, adding that he himself has cultivated 12 acres of land under the programme.

The deputy minister said, currently, farmers who have registered under the programme are cultivating five food crops, namely, rice, soya beans, vegetables, millet and maize.

The Brong-Ahafo Regional Director of MoFA, Dr. Cyril Thaddeus Quist said, as at April this year, the programme had registered almost 30,000 individual farmers in all the 27 districts in the region who have shown interest in the programme.

Dr. Quist said some of the farmers are cultivating, pepper, maize, tomatoes, onion and a few of them are also into the cultivating of soya beans.

He said farmers who wish to join the programme can go to any of the district offices of MoFA for fertilizers.

The Secretary of the Duayaw-Nkwanta Rice Farmers Association, Mr. Seidu Iddrisu Yeboah, who spoke on the show, also appealed to the chiefs in the Tano North district to release more lands for individuals who are interested in the programme.

Mr. Iddrisu Yeboah called on the youth in the district to develop interest in the programme and join them since their sweats would not go waste.