Public Agenda (Accra)
Baba Kofi Yaro
15 June 2009
Denugu — A farming project known as Emergency Initiative to boost rice production in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions has been launched in Denugu in the Garu-Tempane District in the Upper East Region.
The project which is being implemented by the Africa Rice Centre, Catholic Relief Services(CRS) and International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agriculture Developmental Services(IFDC) and Savannah Agriculture Research Institute(SARI) would target 10, 000 rice farmers in the three Northern Regions with 1,677 rice farmers from Upper East benefiting.
Dr Stephen Nutsugah, Acting Director of SARI said the project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is expected to cover a period of two years. Its main objective is to boost total domestic rice production in the country by a total of 30,000 tonnes of paddy rice with a current market value of about 21 million US dollars.
It would also assist farmers to have easy access to certified rice seed and fertilizers through existing distribution channels such as the private sector, government and non-governmental agencies and to expand their knowledge on rice technology to increase production.
He noted that under the project farmers have been divided into two categories known as the Viable and Vulnerable and said the viable farmers would pay half of the prices of all farm inputs such as seeds and fertilizers and the Vulnerable farmers would be supplied with the farming inputs free of charge.
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