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Government Initiates New Agric Programme for Upper East
Navrongo (U/E), July 10, Ghanadot/GNA –
Government has initiated a new agriculture programme for the
people of the Upper East Region as part of measures to
forestall a likely food insecurity in the region.
Under the programme farmers are to enjoy free advisory
services from agricultural experts drawn mainly from the
Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the main body charged to
handle it.
The Ministry has already prepared the land and rice seeds
planted for the maiden programme have so far germinated.
Mr Francis Dery, Acting Regional Director of Food and
Agriculture, disclosed this on Thursday when the Upper East
Regional Minister, Mr. Alhassan Samari paid a working visit
to the farms to acquaint himself with progress so far made
on the new programme.
The programme, which for now would be centred on rice
production, is already underway at Gbedembilsi, a farming
community in the Builsa District.
It was initially targeted to cover 1,200 hectares of
farmland but was later reduced to 400 hectares following
delays in this year’s rains.
About 60 farmer groups of five members each from Builsa,
Kassena-Nankana and Bolgatanga districts are to benefit from
the maiden programme.
He said the food insecurity situation was a global
phenomenon which governments everywhere were battling with
and that the new programme was part of the government’s
prudent policy initiatives to ensure that there was
sufficient food available for the people in the region.
Mr Dery indicated that the programme used 500 bags of rice
seeds for the start and that selected farmers were only to
ensure that the needed care was given to the crops at their
early stage because rain-fed rice production needed little
attention.
He said about 250,000 tons of rice is expected from the
farms by December when the season would end which invariably
could cater for the rice needs of the people in the region
to augment the food situation in the area.
The Regional Minister urged the farmers to as a matter of
urgency create fire belts around the farm to prevent any
fire outbreak when the dry season set in by November and
urged the farmers to contribute their quota to ensure the
success of the programme.
He said the government was ready to explore avenues in
finding lasting solution to the food situation in the region
recalling last year’s devastating floods that almost
grounded farming activities.
Mr Braimah Abdulai Yeji, Assemblyman for the area, commended
the government for the programme and said it had always been
the dream of farmers in the area to have such support
programmes.
He said since the overthrow of the Acheampong regime in the
1970s no government had shown such a responsibility to
farmers.
Mr Yeji appealed to government to work out modalities to
construct an irrigable dam in the Fumbisi valleys to
encourage more of the youth in the area to go into farming.
GNA
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