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AGRICULTURE

West Gonja DCE wants farmers to see agriculture as business

The District Chief Executive (DCE), for West Gonja, Mr Saeed Muhazu Jibril has urged farmers to consider farming as business and adopt the necessary entrepreneurial and technical skills for best results.

Date Created : 12/9/2019 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : GNA

He told the farmers not to see agriculture as a hobby, but as a business where they could make livelihoods. "This is the only way that we can move agriculture forward in accordance with the chosen theme for this year's Farmers ' Day Celebration."

The DCE was speaking at this year's District celebration of Farmers Day at Busunu in the West Gonja District of the Savannah Region.

It was on the theme: "Enhancing small scale agriculture towards agribusiness development."

Mr Jibril noted that agriculture for centuries had been operated as a subsistence activity with few practitioners focusing on it as business.

He said: "As result many young persons, increasingly shy away from agriculture. It is the focus of the NPP [New Patriotic Party] -led government to ensure that there is a paradigm shift, where the agriculture sector will see agriculture as business that responds to the economic growth of the country and not agriculture for the purposes of farming to feed household.

He urged farmers to form vibrant farmer based organisations so that they could get the needed financial support from banks to support the farming activities.

"The governmenton its part has brought various farming equipment, such as tractors and its accessories to augment the process of taking agriculture as business," he added.

He disclosed that government had allocated to the district two tractors, six power tillers with accessories, 20 Motorized sprayers, six maize shellers, and four Engine powered irrigation kits.

These are aimed to modernise agriculture in the country to encourage local economic development.

The DCE said the major challenges confronting farmers in the district were bush fires and destruction of farmlands by alien Fulani herdsmen.

He appealed to chiefs and elders in the various communities to call the Herdsmen to order otherwise farmers in the area would not reap full benefits of the government's flagship programmes in the district.

The District Best Farmer went to Mr Lange Washiw of Damongo. He took home a tricycle, three pieces of cloth, a clock, a radio set among others.