The Ashaiman Municipal Assembly has embraced the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme as part of the government’s efforts to encourage farming across the country.The Ashaiman Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Albert Boakye Okyere, who disclosed this in his maiden sessional address last Monday, said a number of farmers in the municipality had been enrolled onto the programme and supplied with inputs such as seeds and fertilisers at subsidised prices as part of the efforts to promote agriculture and make it attractive for the youth to venture into it.
He promised to ensure that the Assembly, in the coming year, would expand the programme and also go into aquaculture to create employment for the youth and promote fish farming as well.
Dam rehabilitation
He hinted that plans were underway to rehabilitate the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) facility in the municipality to enhance the ’Planting for Food and Jobs’ concept, as well as promote the programme in the municipality.
Through the government’s policy of Planting for Food and Jobs, farmers have been given the opportunity to engage in the production of rice, maize and onion, he said.
According to Mr Okyere, if we were to encourage urban agriculture and aquaculture, then we needed to protect the irrigation lands which were faced with a number of challenges, including encroachment, pollution, broken canals, as well as the dumping of refuse and undesirable materials in the canals and on the farmlands. He promised to address those challenges to enable the farmers to practise commercial farming and create employment in the area.
Environmental sanitation
Touching on the issue of sanitation in the municipality, Mr Okyere said in addition to the interventions made, the assembly was receiving assistance from the central government and its development partners to address environmental sanitation, since it was still a big challenge in the area.
http://www.graphic.com.gh/news/politics/ashaiman-municipal-assembly-embraces-planting-for-food-jobs.html
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