Mr. Nicholas Soyiri, the Jirapa Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), has advised youth who are into agriculture in the municipality to maximize the government’s YouStart initiative to help improve their farming activities.
He said the programme, which was to support youth-led enterprises, could provide the youth-led agri-businesses with the financial support needed to invest in their farming activities.
Mr. Soyiri said this at a durbar of farmers at Sabuli in the Jirapa Municipality, when the Guinness Ghana Breweries PLC presented 100 pieces of tarpaulins to sorghum farmers in the Sabuli area through its sorghum and aggregators in the Upper West region (Agriaccess Ghana Limited, Awo Fields and AE Farms).
The MCE indicated that government is not sitting unconcerned but is doing its best to provide fertilizer for the farmers.
“Government is investing an amount of GHȻ10 million to support startups and young entrepreneurs to bounce back after the COVID-19. I urge young people in Jirapa to take advantage of this programme. The government is also rehabilitating the road networks to enable farmers to cart their farm produce from their farms to the storage and market centres.”
Mr. Soyiri
Guinness Ghana to provide fertilizers to sorghum farmers
Madam Helen Wessie, the Managing Director of Guinness Ghana Breweries PLC, noted that the farmers are the company’s cradle and appealed to them to consolidate the relationship through continuous supply of sorghum to the company.
While expressing gratitude to the farmers in Sabuli and its environment, she intimated that the tarpaulins would enable the farmers to produce quality sorghum grains, free of stones and other foreign materials, for the company for processing.
“As part of efforts to help the farmers to scale up their production and to meet the demand of the company, the company, through its aggregators, would also supply the farmers with fertilizer to increase sorghum production.”
Madam Helen Wessie
Sorghum farmers urged to double production
Mr. Tony Poore, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Agriaccess Ghana Limited, said sorghum production has proven to be a good business with the intervention of Guinness Ghana Breweries PLC by providing a ready market for the produce.
Thus, he encouraged the farmers to double their production to help meet the company’s demand for the 900,000 (50kg) bags (45,000mt) of sorghum target for this year.
The farmers raised concerns about the high cost of the farm inputs and tractor service and the difficulties in accessing fertilizer, which they said hindered their farming businesses.
They, therefore, appealed to the government and agricultural-related non-governmental organizations to come to their aid with the provision of fertilizers, farm machinery, and other inputs.
