AGRICULTURE

Ghana Agric Census training program hits day 2 in Kintampo
As part of government resolve to get accurate data to enable it make informed decisions and choices on agricultural best practices, a nationwide agricultural census is been carried out to train field officers from Wenchi, Kintampo North and South districts in kintampo.

Date Created : 4/17/2018 3:54:04 AM : Story Author : E. D. K. Tottimeh Jnr/Ghanadistricts.com

The B/A region has been divided into zones for the purpose of the training program with kintampo been the Zonal centre.

The Municipal Cordinating Director for Kintampo Municipal Mr. Hayford Kyere in his opening statement welcomed participants to the training program and called on all to fully participate in the exercise.

He mentioned that the Census was very dear to the governmnent of the day since it had introduced a number of agricultural reforms and improvement programs.



Some of these programs he mentioned included;

• Planting for food and jobs/investment.
• Fertilizer subsidy
• Improved subsidized seeds
• Cocoa and cashew mass spraying.
• 10 years cashew development plan, among others.

Mr. Kyere further stated that the program was to establish a credible baseline data for government and any other agency or institution that may need it. This among other things he added will help in monitoring agricultural production in Ghana.

Mr Patrick Agyekum of the Ghana Statistical Service noted that the census was been carried out per recommendations of FAO as contained in its world class agricultural agriculture 2020 modular approach programme.

He recalled however that most of the agricultural improvement programs that had been carried out in the country for sometime now have not been able to give credible information on the dynamics of agriculture in national character but mentioned that this exercise will provide government with a credible data on agriculture.



He asked Field Officers to work assiduosly within the stipulated 90 days in other to be able to capture the entire Enumerated Areas.
Mr Agyekum added that the whole exercise was about food sustainability and security.

Mr Hammond Sellasie Attigah of the Ministry of Food and Agricutlure took participants through the use of maps and identified some key features when reading maps such as keys, boundaries, legends etc emphasizing that each field officer would be provided with a map for their Enumeration Area which will spell out their operational areas.

The Coordinator for the programme Mr. Joe Hannoi, Ghana Statistical Service said the officers would be provided with the required materials at the end of the training program(9th day) for the exercise to start immediately.

He added that the farming season now was a good period as much data needed could come in handy from the respondents.

A total of 81 officers are undergoing training for the Agricultural Census from the 3 selected districts.

Information Officers drawn from Wenchi, Kintampo and Jema took part in the exercise as the success of the census also depended on publicity.