The Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Dr. Owusu Afriyie-Akoto, has expressed appreciation for the concerted effort of farmers within Volta Region for sharing knowledge with smallholder farmers.
He gave the commendation last Friday, at the Volta Regional Coordinating Council(VRCC) in the Volta Region applauding the farmers for having embraced the initiative of Planning for Food and Jobs(PFJ).
Dr. Afriyie-Akoto said contrary to the political position held by farmers in the region at the onset of the programme for which reason farmers in the region were one of the late group of farmers to wholly embrace the initiative, the programme has chalk great success.
He said regardless of the late acceptance of the initiative, the region had unearthed great agricultural potential in rice, oil palm and maize production.
In addition, Dr. Afriyie-Akoto remarked that wholly accepting the projects had led to unearthing of the region as a good destination for huge pineapple plantation.
Consequently, he tasked the Regional Agriculture Director, Mr. William Dzamefe, to fashion out measures to bring all satellite pineapple producers in the region under one umbrella.
The aim, he noted, is to enable the farmers tap into the rich knowledge, skills and markets of Kaleawo Ltd, a large scale pineapple production, packaging and exporting company.
Dr. Afriyie-Akoto indicated that this company started its operations in the Central Region but had to look for other destinations due to excessive land-grabbing by real estate developers.
Presenting the overview of the progress of agricultural growth in the region, the Regional Agricultural Director, Mr. William Dzamefe, noted that his outfit was committed to attend to the concerns of the farmers in the region.
On his part, the Farm Manager for Kaleawo Ltd, Mr. Seidu Labaran Mohammed, appealed for support in areas of inputs such as fertilisers and planting materials.
He explained that such a move will lessen the burden imposed by inflation on the farmers.
