Obuasi East to implement climate change resilient oil palm project
The Obuasi East District Directorate of Agriculture is implementing a climate change resilient oil palm project to help boost sustainable oil palm production in the area.
Mr Victor Owusu-Ansah, the District Director of Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), who announced this, said the project, which is being implemented in collaboration with AngloGold Ashanti and Solidaridad, would help farmers to get improved seedlings that could withstand the changing climatic conditions.
Mr Owusu-Ansah said farmland registration and stakeholder engagements had been completed and 127 oil palm farmers were selected to benefit from the programme.
Seventeen farmers were honoured at the ceremony which was held under the theme “planting for food and jobs – consolidating Ghana’s food systems”.
They received various prizes such as fridges, cutlasses, weedicides, fertilizers, knapsack sprayers and certificates.
The overall district best farmer award went to a 63-year-old school administrator, from Asonkore, Mr Samuel Edmundson Appiah.
Mr Appiah owns 40-acres of cocoa farm, 12 acres of citrus, 10.5 acres of plantain, 18 acres of oil palm, six acres of maize, fish pond, among others.
He had previously won the second best district farmer award in 2007 and overall best farmer in Obuasi Municipal in 2017.
For his prize, Mr Appiah received a tricycle, 32-inches LED TV set, GTP wax print, wellington boots, and a certificate.
Mr Owusu – Ansah said the district directorate of food and agriculture was building the capacities of the farmers on the agricultural value chain concept to help link the producers, processors, marketers and the input dealers.
This would help create a conducive environment for the stakeholders in the value chain to interact for their mutual benefit.
Madam Faustina Amissah, the District Chief Executive, praised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for introducing the planting for food and jobs concept, which had helped to improve the country’s food security.
She said through the programme, foodstuff such as tomatoes, plantain and others, which were hitherto considered as seasonal were now in abundance all year round.
Madam Amissah said the recruitment of extension officers had not only helped to reduce unemployment but also supported the farmers immensely to adopt modern farming practices and increase crop yields to increase their incomes and reduce poverty among farmers.
Dr Patrick Boakye Yiadom, Member of Parliament for the area, said the one district one warehouse concept was initiated by the government to reduce post-harvest losses while the one district one factory was initiated to add value to the country’s agricultural produce.
He called on Ghanaians to support the government by paying their taxes to enable the government to rake in enough revenue to finance its developmental projects.
Source: GNA