Farmers to receive poverty alleviation fund in kind

Akwansrem (Eastern Region), 10 March '99 -

Mr Collins Owusu Appiah, District Chief Executive for Fanteakwa, has said the poverty alleviation fund for farmers would not be provided in cash but as inputs to farmers. He said this during a visit to Akwansrem, near Begoro, yesterday to explain government policies and programmes to the people. The DCE noted that farmers have misapplied loans granted them in cash over the years which has contributed to their inability to repay such loans and asked those who applied for the poverty alleviation fund to disabuse their minds that the loans would be granted in cash. Mr Appiah said timber concessionaires have been banned from operating in the district following their rampant destruction of the forests and asked unit committee members to be on the alert to bring chainsaw operators in the area to book. The government has put in place the Village Infrastructure Project, as an affiliate of the poverty alleviation scheme, to assist the youth to go into agriculture, the DCE explained. The District Director of Education, Mr D.M. Ankomah, expressed concern over low enrolment in the primary school in the town and asked parents to send their children to school.