The Government through the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) initiative has distributed about 2,575 organic fertilizers and certified seedling to 486 farmers in the Upper Denkyira West District (UDWD).
A total of 2,500 organic fertilizer and 75 bags of certified seeds were distributed to 357 males and 129 females within the Area.
The move is aimed at enhancing food, security and immediate availability of selected food crops on the market and also provide jobs to reduce the unemployment rate in the country.
Mr Richmond Koduah, the District Chief Executive (DCE) who revealed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Agricultural development at Diaso, said it was prudent to boost food production to meet Ghana’s food sustainability and the World’s food security Agenda in the mist of COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the PJF had since its introduction, helped many farmers in the district to cut the cost of production and increase crop productivity.
The intervention he said was improving food security, creating job opportunities along the agricultural value chain, improving productivity at the farm level and ensuring availability of raw materials for industry.
Mr Koduah noted that various interventions under the PFJ and other initiatives in the sector had mitigated the impact of climate change by including the use of climate resilient seeds, irrigation systems, weather technologies and farmer education, all geared towards greening Ghana for Food and Jobs.
On Planting for Export and Rural Development module, the Assembly had supplied 2,250 cocoa seedlings, 33,770 Oil Palm seedlings to 261 farmers to boost production and local economy.
The Assembly had rolled out interventions to improve the Palm Oil business by the construction of an ultra modern Oil Palm Processing Factory through the one District one Factory (1D1F) initiative.
Mr Koduah noted that the Assembly’s extension services had provided awareness by educating farmers on reversing land degradation through sustainable practices, managing natural resources sustainably and adopting resilience methods for adaptation and mitigation of climate change.
He said the combined effect of those specific interventions over the years, accounted substantially to improved food production and overall food security in the District.
In the cocoa industry, the Assembly in line with the Cocoa rehabilitation program, rehabilitated 408 farms on 292 hectres of farmland with 737 labourers and had nursed a total of 1,100,000 cocoa seedlings and distributed to 3,011 farmers in the District.
Moreover, he added that about 45, 270 hectres 42, 300 hectres farmlands had benefited from the insecticides and fungicides distribution under COPDAPEC initiative.
By Victoria Agyemang, GNA
