Farmers in Achiase District have called on the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to deploy Agriculture Extension Agents (AEAs) to the district to provide farming services and facilitate dissemination of new extension technologies to farmers.

The farmer's appeal followed an annual Research Extension farmer Linkage Committee (RELC) meeting held at Akyem Achiase in the Eastern Region.

Mr Abraham Quargraine, the Overall Achiase District Best Farmer 2020 said inadequate AEAs in Akenkansu, Aperade, Osoroase, and Achiase was one of the major issues of concern in the four operational zones.

He said farmers were limited when it came to mechanised farming and called on the government to ensure their request was met on time to bring them up-to-date with modern farming techniques to boost productivity.

Mr Kafui Safo, Director of Agriculture in Achiase District highlighted the importance of RELC that it was basically to prioritise farmers' constraints and finding successful actions to solving them.

The RELC was established by the MoFA and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The farmer groups expressed lack of supply of subsidised fertiliser for cereals and legumes, vegetables, roots and tubers, fruits and tree crops as some of the cross-cutting constraints.

It was therefore recommended that the agriculture department should intervene in providing farmers with enough subsidised fertiliser on time.

Mr Daniel Agyei - Dwarko, Eastern Regional RELC Coordinator, assured participants that the Agriculture Department would find a definite solution to the issue of improved variety of tomatoes which was not thriving in the area for many decades for its yield.

He advised farmers to cooperate with the few Agriculture Extension Agents in the area to help them be abreast with modern agriculture technologies, saying: "The appeal for adequate AEAs would be worked at."

About 37 participants were drawn from agro-input dealers, farmers, food processors, consumers and the Achiase District Assembly officials.