Brong-Ahafo Best Farmer Appeals For More Lands

The 2017 Brong-Ahafo Regional Best Farmer, Nana Yaw Boateng, has appealed to chiefs and landowners to provide land to prospective farmers to contribute to the success of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PfFJs) Programme.

Nana Boateng made the appeal in an interview with Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Thursday at Kwapong, a predominantly farming community in the Asunafo South District of the Brong-Ahafo Region.

He noted that the availability of land could attract a large number of potential farmers, especially the adult youth in typical farming communities to embark on commercial farming.

But the lack of it for large-scale farming seemed a major obstacle to the success of the laudable PfFJs Programme, Nana Boateng said.

He advised farmers who had been given seeds and seedlings for planting to take the Programme serious for increased yield to enable the government to achieve the objective of its implementation.

Nana Boateng stated that farming was a lucrative job, saying the youth must, therefore, be supported by government through the Municipal/District Assemblies and their Directorates of Agriculture for them to take advantage to become employed by that.

He expressed the hope that by that, the rural-urban migration of the youth in search for non-existent white-collar jobs could be reduced, adding that positively the pressure on inadequate accommodation in the urban areas would be minimised, while the daily increase in waste generated and its associated management challenges would also come down.

Nana Boateng commended the government for the introduction of the cocoa pollination programme which has employed thousands of youth across the country, saying that programme would greatly boost the production of cocoa.

He, however, advised cocoa farmers to weed their farms frequently to encourage the 'pollination gangs to work with enthusiasm for maximum output to achieve the desired results.