Kwahu Afram Plains North DCE rallies support for PFJ2.0
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Kwahu Afram Plains North in the Eastern Region, Isaac Nana Ofori-Koree, is rallying the youth and farmers to register for the Planting for Food and Jobs Phase Two (PFJ2.0) in his district.
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Mr Ofori-Koree said the PFJ2.0 was a good initiative that would address the issue of poverty in the area. "Everybody living in this district must take advantage and move to the district agricultural department and get registered," he rallied his people.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview, he explained that farmers who take advantage of the initiative and register would not have to provide any labour " because the government is going to prepare the land for you, the government is going to give you all farm inputs that you need.
"At the end of the day, when you harvest, an aggregator will take a percentage equivalent to the farm inputs you received and the remaining will be your profit,” the DCE told the Daily Graphic in an interview in his office at Donkorkrom.
Registration
Currently, a total of 1,332 farmers have been registered under the programme and 669 of them have had their farms mapped. Mr Ofori-Koree described the PFJ2.0 initiative as the saviour of the people of Afram Plains, and urged them to take advantage of the opportunity offered them.
Farm size
Giving details of the programme, the District Agriculture Officer (Management and Information System) Francis Dika Bonsu, explained that his out was still embarking on the sensitisation of farmers to get them to register under the programme.
He further explained that unlike phase one of the programme, where farmers could just walk in for the subsidies, "this time around, we have to follow the registered farmers to their farms to take the coordinates of their farms".
He is confident that the numbers will increase when the sensitisation is over. "In our district here, we are looking at maize, rice and soybeans out of the 10 different crops under the programme," Mr Bonsu explained.
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He was happy that under phase two, irrespective of the size of the land, the farmer was accepted. Mr Bonsu further stated that the average land size so far mapped was 10 acres, adding that the PFJ2.0 allowed the farmers to extend their farms to any level and not be afraid of the cost implications.
Touching on the field officers to map the farms, the District Agric Officer said the district had only six officers even though it had 15 operational areas. He explained that the situation had forced officers on schedule in the offices to move onto the field to assist in picking up the coordinates of the farms.
Mr Bonsu was hopeful that new officers would be recruited to augment the current low number in the district.