The Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme has enabled farmers to expand their farms and boost productivity as over 2,600 farmers in the Kwahu West Municipality benefit from the programme.
The farmers were supported with subsidised fertilizers, seeds, planted maize and vegetables to make up for some losses incurred during this perilous time, coronavirus pandemic.
This was disclosed at the Assembly meeting at Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region by the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr. Yaw Owusu-Addo. He gave a breakdown of the items the farmers received. According to him, a total of 400 bags of NPK, 200 bags of Urea, 595 sachets of cabbage seeds and 427 bags of certified seed maize were received by the Municipal Agriculture Department and distributed to the farmers.
He assured the people that his outfit would do its best to ensure that the people benefitted from government’s flagship programmes to enhance their lots.
The MCE indicated that many of the farmers also signed onto the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) initiative and were into oil palm and cocoa production.
According to Mr. Owusu-Addo, the Assembly gave out 96.5 bags of rice seed to registered farmers to be planted on 241 acres of land under the Special Rice Initiative (SRI).
He further revealed that the District Agriculture Extension Officers had trained about 300 youth in bee keeping and mushroom production and the use of hermetic storage bags for the storage of grains, cereals and legumes in the Municipality.
Mr. Owusu-Addo indicated that other youth in the Municipality were also trained in the use of modern technologies in the application of fertilizers, diseases and pests’ control, planting in roll, planting in time and how to prevent post-harvest loses.
He said the Assembly also procured 225,000 cocoa seedlings out of which 220,704 had already been distributed to farmers, adding that the Assembly had plans of raising 60,000 oil palm seedlings at Jejeti- Asuoso under the programme.
He said PERD programme aimed at encouraging the farmers to cultivate tree crops such as mangoes, coffee, cocoa, oil palm, coconut and cashew as a form of investment and to produce raw materials to spur the establishment of factories in the Municipality.
He noted that the PFJ and PERD initiatives were making significant impacts on the economy as a result of which the country had reduced the importation of some food crops.
Mr Owusu-Addo therefore called on the public to support the government in implementing the various initiatives for faster socio-economic development of the country.
