Nyankpala (N/R), Oct.24, GNA - As part of measures to facilitate the proper acquisition of land for purposes of agricultural development under the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) an amount of 957 dollars has been released to the Judicial Service for the computerization and rehabilitation of 10 circuit courts in the country. Out of the amount the Government provided 350 dollars while the MiDAs provided 607 dollars, the money would be used to support the clearing of backlogs of land cases in the 23 beneficiary districts of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).

Mr Michael Asomani-Edem, Project Manager of the Commercialisation of Agriculture of MiDA, announced this at the launch of the MiDAs Commercial Development of Farmers Based Organisations (CDFO) in the Northern Intervention Zone at Nyankpala recently.

The occasion was also used to inaugurate the Office of the Regional Implementation Consultant. He said under the land component of MiDA a land database on land ownership and availability among other things was being developed to ensure security of land for current and future investors in the 23 beneficiaries communities of the MCA.

He explained that the land component were in four broad sections including land title pilot registration; clearing of backlog land cases, on-demand land tracking services and capacity building and information dissemination.

Mr Asomani-Edem said the Project would construct feeder as well as trunk roads in the three zones selected for MiDA activities namely - Afram Plains, the Northern and Southern zones - to open up the farming communities in the areas for agricultural production and marketing. He said the construction of a perishable cargo centre at the Kotoka International Airport had started adding that feasibility studies for the rehabilitation and expansion of irrigation facilities in the three zones had been carried out for work to begin soon. The Project Manager said in the Northern Region, irrigation facilities to be rehabilitated and expanded include; the Bontanga, Nasia, Libga and Golinga irrigation dams.

Dr Kofi Debrah, Implementation Consultant of the CDFO, said his team was led by the International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) with the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) as it main implementer.

He said they were expected to train 360 Farmer Based Organisations (FBO), representing about 18,000 farmers to practise agriculture as a business in the Tamale Metropolis, Tolon/Kumbungu, Savelugu/Nanton, Karaga and West Mamprusi Districts.

He said the Project would also include 20 service providing entities as well as five value-added entities during the four-year project. Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister, said the overall goal of the MCA compact tied perfectly with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aimed to eradicate extreme poverty by 2015. He said information gathered from the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy II, showed that an average of 88 per cent of the population of the Northern Region lived below the poverty line. He therefore expressed the hope that with the financial resources and social infrastructure facilities being provided in the Region by the MCA, the poverty situation would be substantially eradicated by the end of the compact period. 24 Oct. 08