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AGRICULTURE

Ajumako Assembly moves to transform Agric with cash crops

Rev Ransford Kwesi Nyarko, the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam Assembly says it is taking steps to transform agriculture in the district from a state of subsistence farming to the production of cash crops to boost livelihoods.

Date Created : 2/7/2022 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : GNA

The transformation which is premised on the government’s Planting for Export and Rural Development programme would focus mainly on cocoa, oil palm and coconut.

Reverend Ransford, in an interview with the journalists, indicated that the move was also targeted at returning the district to its former status of “cocoa district” before the 1983 bushfires.

He explained that the Assembly had already started registering farmers and distributing seedlings to them, adding that about 500,000 cocoa seedlings were distributed to 2,000 farmers last year.

“Beyond the cocoa, we have also been able to do close to about 8,000 coconut seedlings and we have plans to do another 8,000 this year. At the same time, we are planning to raise about 50,000 to 100,000 palm kernel seedlings,” Mr Nyarko revealed.

“We are hoping that once we are able to get the farmers to move away from the usual food crops and go into cash crops, we will get some very good incomes,” he added.

Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam is a district of predominantly peasant farmers who produce all kinds of crops, including cassava, plantain, yam, tomatoes, pepper, cabbage and some fruits, with a handful of them doing cocoa in relatively limited quantities.

“Sustainable farming is the way to go in this era and so we want to move them away from food crops to cash crops,” the DCE stressed.

Rev. Nyarkoh noted that the government had been supportive of the assembly’s agenda with the deployment of more agriculture extension officers to the district.

“The infrastructural support, motorbikes and pickup vehicles for agriculture directors make them more mobile now. All we have to do is to closely work with them to ensure that the good policies of the government get the intended targets,” he said.