Farmers urged to visit agric offices to enhance knowledge

The Birim Central Municipal Agricultural Extension Officer, Mr Prosper Klu, has called on farmers to regularly visit local agricultural offices for suggestions on improved farming practices to help improve their yields.

He said improved technologies and innovations would be shared for farmers to overcome challenges in agriculture.

Mr Klu said this at a meeting organised by the Research Extension Farmers Linkage Committee (REFLC) of the Department of Agriculture at Akim Oda in the Birim Central Municipality of the Eastern Region.

The meeting was to find solutions to constraints being faced by farmers in the Birim Central Municipality.

The members of the committee comprised representatives from the Eastern Regional Department of Agriculture, assembly staff, farmers, agricultural input dealers and the media.

An Officer with the Management Information Service of the Birim Central Municipal Agricultural Department, Mr Francis Ahiamatah, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, said the farmers had been put in six groups.

He said they were livestock and poultry, tree crops, root and tubers, cereals and legumes, vegetables, cross cutting and emerging issues.

Mr Ahiamatah said the constraints identified by the committee were poor management and wrongful application of agricultural chemicals which would be addressed by REFLC.

An officer at the Eastern Regional Department of Agriculture, Madam Hajia Abiba Yusifu, said the committee was formed by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture together with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to help identify farmer, value-chain and industry constraints for discussion in the planning sessions at the district and regional levels.