9 August 2008
More than two thousand, two hundred and fifty (2,250) Ghana cedis have been spent on the implementation of the Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme (RTIMP) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) in the Obuasi Municipality.
The programme which started in July last year seeks to enhance incomes and food security to improve the livelihood of the rural poor in the country.
Mr Lawrence Kofi Dartey, Deputy Director of Agriculture at the Obuasi office of MOFA who announced this said the amount was used in clearing land, creation of fire belt and the general maintenance of five cassava fields totalling 17.2 acres cultivated between July and September last year.
He was giving an overview of the RTIMP in Obuasi at a stakeholders' forum on the programme at Ayease near Obuasi. Mr Dartey said the cassava fields, located at Kwapia, Adaase, Asonkore, Nyamesomyede and Mampamhwe were being used as secondary multiplication plots for variety of cassava plants.
The Deputy Director said in addition, three-Farmer Field Fora (FFF) were to be established with that of Nyamesomyede already in place to give training to group farmers on land preparation through to harvesting period.
Mr Kwaku Anane, Commodity Chain Linkages Specialist of RTIMP, appealed to farmers to consider their farming activities as a business and therefore they needed to plan properly so that their farms could yield the expected dividends.
Mr Edward Amoah-Offei, Principal Project Officer of Odotobiri Rural Bank who spoke on how farmers could access loans from banks, regretted that, most farmers refused to pay back loans granted them to expand their farms.
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