Agric project launched in the Afram Plains

Donkorkrom (E/R), March 20, GNA- A 32.5 million dollar Kwahu North District Agricultural Project (APDADP) had been launched to increase agricultural output and household income of beneficiary farmers in the area.

The project is being funded by the African Development Bank(AfDB), which is contributing 28.9 million dollars representing 89 per cent with the Government of Ghana providing a counterpart funding of 3.6 million dollars.

Launching the project, the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture(MOFA), Mr Clement Eledi, said a total of 1,138 farmer groups would be formed to benefit from the package and in all over 28,000 individual farmers would benefit from the project.

He said the citing of the project in the district was part of government policy of balance regional growth and as part of his desire to meet the government millennium development goals. Mr Eledi said the project would ensure rainwater management, seed multiplication, improved irrigated vegetable production, livestock management and fisheries resource management.

He called for effective collaboration between all stakeholders to ensure a successful implementation of the project.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Yaw Barimah said, it came as no surprise that the Kwahu North District was chosen, because even though over 90 per cent of residents engage in agriculture, its people are still suffering from mal-nutrition, disease and object poverty. He called on the stakeholders including the District Assemblies, traditional authorities, officials of MOFA and the project officials to work effectively for the district to derive maximum benefit from the project.

Mr Barimah said similar major regional agricultural projects such as the Upper Regional Agricultural Development Project (URADEP), the Volta Regional Agricultural Development Project(VORADEP) and quiet recently, the Upper West Regional Development Project(UWADEP) had been launched in similar grand style but failed to improve the living standards of the people.

The Regional Minister said funds from the European Union (EU) would be used to construct three hundred kilometres of feeder roads under the road improvement programme between 2007 and 2008 to facilitate the transportation of food produces to the marketing centres to avoid post harvest looses.

He said the government would use funds from the millennium challenge accounts to purchase an additional ferry for the Adawso -Ekye-Amamfro route, while the Kwame Pong Nkwanta to Agogo feeder road would be completed to provide outlets for the district. The District Chief Executive, Mr Solomon Fordjour said the district was the largest in the Eastern Region with arable land coverage of 5,040 square kilometres.

He said the project would ensure that poverty was reduced through credit facility and a reliable market for the produce of farmers as well as providing irrigation schemes to ensure all year round farming . The Project Co-ordinator, Mr Kofi Amoako Tweneboa said the vision for the project was to development the plains as the nations food basket through agricultural modernization.