Business

Ho West to distribute cocoa, coffee, cashew seedlings to farmers

The Ho West District Assembly has raised 283,000 cocoa seedlings in addition to 67,000 coffee seedlings and 18,000 cashew seedlings for distribution to local farmers under the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) programme.

This will benefit about 5000 farmers in the district.

“We will supply the seedlings freely to the farmers,” said the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Ernest Apau.

According to him, the seedlings were raised from 81 nurseries in 21 communities in the district.

The DCE gave the assurance that the assembly would continue to support tree crop production with great zeal, resources, and enthusiasm, adding that by the end of the year, it would assist farmers to embark on coconut, citrus and oil palm production on large scale.

He said that the assembly was collaborating with COCOBOD to ensure that cocoa production in the district suffered no setback, while private entities were vigorously supporting the assembly in the production of cashew and coffee.

“These are viable undertakings because there are ready markets for the produce,” Mr Apau said.

Meanwhile, the Ho West District has been adjudged the best in the Volta and Oti Regions in PERD.

At a recent workshop on Modernising Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) in Ho, the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), Mr Collins Ntim,  revealed that the district produced 23 per cent of the total seedlings raised in the two regions.

The district was now to benefit from the Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP) and other support schemes to enable it to excel further in the various agricultural initiatives.

Mr Apau told the Ghanaian Times prior to Easter that, the assembly was also implementing a One-Paramountcy-One-Farm programme.

“This is to ensure that all the 16 paramountcies in the Ho district benefit from stool farms,” he explained.

Mr Apau said that the objectives of the programme also included increasing the incomes of chiefs, promoting the rural economy and responding to climate change in the district.

FROM ALBERTO MARIO NORETTI, DZOLO-KPUITA

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