SADA supplies tractors to Upper West farmers
The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) has presented 34 tractors to the Upper West Region to be used for ploughing services to farmers in the region.
This brings to 54 the number of tractors given to farmers in the region by SADA. The first batch of 20 tractors was presented to the region last year.
The tractors have been distributed and put under the care of service providers across the region who were expected to pay back the cost of services not with cash but rather with an agreed yield of crop harvested per acre ploughed at the end of the farming season.
Mr. Joseph Faalong the Regional Director of Agriculture made this known at a brief ceremony at Wa on recently during which the tractors were handed over to the service providers.
The event also marked the end of a three-day workshop for drivers of the tractors and the service providers.
The workshop took the drivers through the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) requirements.
Mr. Faalong noted that the region had about 265 functioning tractors which were insufficient to plough about 488,000 hectares of soyabean, rice, maize and other cereals put under cultivation in the region yearly.
With the addition of the new tractors into the system, he was optimistic that the situation would improve and envisioned that each tractor would plough about 1,885 hectares.
He warned the drivers against using the tractors for other things rather than the purpose for which they had been provided, saying they (drivers) would be monitored.
Dr Ephraim Avea Nsor, the Upper West Regional Minister, appealed to the service providers to lead the crusade to rejuvenate agricultural production in the region by supporting to push up SADA to enable it succeeds in its mission.
As people who would be operating in the rural areas especially communities along the borders with Ghana’s neighbours, he urged the tractor drivers to assist the security agencies to arrest fertilizer smugglers.
Mr. Sam Danse, Human Resource and Corporate Affairs Manager of SADA, said the organization would support local communities to increase their income and come out of poverty as agriculture formed one of the six key driving forces of SADA.
He told the service providers and the communities to take ownership of the project and handle it as they would handle their own property.
Source: GNA