INVOLVE ZOOMLION IN STATE FARMS MANAGEMENT (PAGE 42, DEC 1, 2010)

THE Communications Officer of Zoomlion responsible for the northern sector, Mr Francis Atayure Abirigo, has appealed to the government to consider engaging Zoomlion in the establishment and management of state farms to ensure food security in the country.
Making the appeal through the Daily Graphic in Bolgatanga, Mr Abirigo said Zoomlion had the human resource, requisite managerial skills and capacity to ensure that the envisaged national food buffer stock programme became a reality.
He said the company cultivated over 900 acres of various crops in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions this year, under the “Zoom Farms Project.”
Mr Abirigo said in the Northern Region alone, the company cultivated 360 acres of rice in the Savelugu District and Yendi Municipality, while in the Upper West Region, it cultivated 298 acres in four districts.
He stated that 107 acres had been used for maize cultivation, 86 acres for cowpea and 105 acres for soya beans.
According to him, 145 acres of land were being cultivated in three districts in the Upper East Region, while 75 acres had been used for the cultivation of maize and 70 acres for soya beans, all of which were due for harvesting.
Mr Abirigo said if the Youth in Agriculture Module of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) was integrated into the Zoom Farms Project, it could help the nation to have a bumper harvest and go a long way to ensure food security.
He said over the years, Ghanaians in particular, and Africans in general, had woefully failed to manage state businesses and property, but had succeeded in managing private businesses.
Mr Abirigo stated that it was against that backdrop that he was calling on managers of the state purse to consider farming as a sure way of bridging the gap between the poor and the rich in the country.
The communications officer urged the youth in the country to take farming as sustainable employment rather than looking for non-existent white-collar jobs since it had a higher potential of improving their economic status.
He explained that the Zoom Farm Project was aimed at ensuring that the government’s efforts at enhancing food security and buffer harvest for both internal and external use was achieved.
Mr Abirigo also emphasised that farming, and for that matter agriculture, could change the economy into a self-reliant one and Ghanaians would certainly be the beneficiaries, unlike oil and gold whose revenue were influenced by foreign investors.
He urged all staff of Zoomlion, especially the Regional and District Operations Supervisors (DOS) to tighten their belts as they moved to a new pedestal.