Food production in Afram Plains increased

Donkorkrom(E/R), June 22, GNA - The implementation of the five-year Afram Plains District Agriculture Development Project (APDADP), with the support of 32.5 million dollar loan from the African Development Bank, two and half years ago had increased agriculture production in the Kwahu North District.

The project included production, infrastructure development, institutional capacity building and project management development, were initiated by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture(MOFA) and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, in November 2006. The co-ordinator of the project, Mr Kofi Amoako Tweneboah, made this known when the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi held a meeting with MOFA staff and farmers at Donkorkrom, as part of his two-day official visit to the Kwahu North district.

He said the supply of farming inputs on credit basis and training on improve methods of farming and management for 600 farmers groups have increased the cultivation of maize to 6,700 hectors, yam to 3,400 hectors, cashew to 1,650 hectors and cassava to 1,150 hectors, while twenty-two farmers group also cultivated two hundred hectors of vegetables.

Mr Tweneboah who is also the District Director of Agriculture, said to address the post harvest losses in the area, 87 narrow cribs and 25 raised huts have been constructed for farmer groups as demonstration, structures for them to build more to store their harvested maize. On the declining fish resources in the Volta Lake, he said three million fingerlings of one million per year for three years will be raised to re-stock the lake.

Mr Tweneboah raised the need for the construction of five fodder banks and dugouts at major life stock production sites on the Dwarf Island, Forifori, Amankwaah Tornu, Chemfre and Maame Krobo totalling 200 hectors to provide grazing lands for life stock. He said the project will also upgrade 200 kilometre feeder roads in the district to enhance the movement of goods and services, while twenty bore holes would be drilled to provide potable water to 6,000 people at the project beneficial areas.

Mr Tweneboah said 12 new staff bungalows and nine agriculture extension assistances (AEA) quarters were being renovated, with 20 new two-bedroom AEA quarters under construction to provide accommodation to the project staff.

He said 44 motor bikes, five double cabin pickups, staff allowances and training programmes would be provided to the staff and farmers under the project.

The District Chief Executive, Mr Charles Evans Apraku said only seven per cent of farm lands of about 5,044 square kilometres, were being put under cultivation under the project, with massive support by the previous and present governments.

He said the district benefited from 47 per cent of the Millennium Challenge Account and a 32.5 million dollar loan from the African Development Bank to embark upon the programme to modernize agriculture and increase productivity in the district.

In spite of the success achieved by the two interventions so far, Mr Apraku expressed concern about the slow pace at which some of the components were being implemented, especially MIDA programmes, and called for fast implementation of its programmes to provide the needed financial, logistics and infrastructure development of the area. Mr Ahwoi commended APDAPD for investing the loan to provide the needed infrastructure and training for the farmers and also provide them with inputs to increase food production.

He urged them to undertake infrastructure projects that will be beneficial to the people and also award contract to competent contractors to avoid undertaken shoddy work on the project. The Minister of Food and Agriculture urged the Lands Department to register all lands in the area, to know their real owners for other investors to acquire them for their projects, and also advised the agriculture staff to register all farmers under the projects with identity cards for easy identification and assistance.