Richard Attenkah
27 August 2008
Ashienya — The 2006 National Best Farmer, Mohammed Tetteh Akpa has appealed to the government to expand the frontiers of agriculture in the country, by making it more attractive.
This, according to him, would help to attract majority of the unemployed youth lining the streets of this country into farming activities, to cut down on the unemployment rate.
Mr. Mohammed Akpa, who started his farming career as a rice farmer in Afienya in 1982, and in 1989 added pepper to his line of crops, was speaking to the press at Afienya last Thursday.
The national best farmer disclosed that one way that the government could make this work was to assign for example, about 20 youth who are interested to go into agriculture to one of the national best farmers or people who are highly trained and have been successful in the trade.
According to him, farming was a lucrative business, but because the trade had not been made attractive enough, it has not been able to exert its influence on our unemployed youth.
The 2006 national best farmer, who in 1998 and 2004 was adjudged as the Greater Accra regional best farmer, said he had acquired so much knowledge and was willing to impact it onto any serious minded persons who require his assistance.
He declared that from a humble beginning he has now reached a position where he has 50,000 acres of mango plantation, 80,000 acres of maize, 70,000 acres of maize, pepper, tomatoes and water melon. "With about 6,800 stock of cattle in 2006, the number now stands at 7,500", while he could also boost of 70,000 laying birds at his poultry farm at Afienya, near Ashaiman.
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