Nabdam District Assembly in the Upper East Region has embraced the “Planting for Food and Jobs” program as part of the government’s efforts to encourage farming across the country.
The program according to the assembly when well implemented, will see the nation become self-sufficient in food production to feed the growing population, as well as enable farmers to generate more revenue from their hard work.
Speaking to Radio Ghana’s Samuel Ayammah in Nabdam, the Nabdam District Chief Executive, Agnes Anamoo, underlined the government’s unswerving determination to deepen the engagement with the people of Ghana to create space for everybody to contribute to the development of the nation.
Madam said the agricultural revolutionary program has changed the lives of the people in the area.
She revealed that all farmers who stopped farming in the area and traveled to the southern part of the country because of the high cost of fertilizer have come back to continue their farming.
She urged farmers in the district to adhere strictly to the advice from extension officers as they worked to increase their crop yield at the end of the season.
She called for more women participation in the program because it had more men involved at the moment in the area. Madam Anamoo commended the government for the initiative and promised to make agriculture a top priority in planned activities of the district assembly.
Touching on the of availability of ready market for farm produce, the DCE said market for farmers’ produce had been addressed by the government, adding, government through private partnership will buy all that is produced for resale and the excess stored in warehouses across the country.
She assured all the farmers registered under the program that no produce of theirs will go waste, and as such should not harbour any fears.
Madam Anamoo furthermore appealed to the farmers to fully support the program and ensure that it was successful.
She cautioned the district directors of agriculture not to politicize the program, stressing that such a move will negatively affect its sustenance.
The programme had the objective of assisting farmers across the country to increase their output and produce enough for both domestic and foreign consumption.
The DCE said she was motivated when she toured some of the farms and realized that the farmers had embraced the initiative put forth by the government to improve agricultural productivity, as well as the livelihoods of farmers.
She urged farmers who had not yet registered under the programme to do so because the programme had come to stay.
Madam Anamoo said the assembly in collaboration with the Nabdam District Directorate of Feeder Roads are putting measures in place to make the roads in the area motorable for farmers to transport their farm produce to the market centres.
She appealed to the government and for that matter the Ministry of Agriculture to as a matter of urgency deliver the improved seeds early to the district MOFA directorate in the next farming season.
She said the MOFA directorate took delivery of the improved seeds in the area late, saying most farmers sowed their own seeds because of the late arrival of the improved seeds from government.
Madam Anamoo said the district took delivery of five thousand two hundred and twenty-five bags of fertilizer.
She said they were able to distribute three thousand one hundred and fourteen bags and currently they have two thousand one hundred and eleven bags of fertilizer in stock for dry season gardening.
She said the army worms also affected some farms in the area but with the timely intervention by the chemicals offered them by the Ministry of agriculture all affected farms were recovered.
The Acting Nabdam District Director of MOFA, Iddi Mohamudu, said farmers were reluctant in the registration process but the numbers started increasing rapidly when the farming inputs started arriving.
He commended farmers in the district for strictly adhering to the technical advices offered them by the agric extension officers.
