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Over 10,000 smallholder farmers in the Sekyere South, Ejura Sekyedumasi and Atebubu-Amantin districts in the Ashanti and Bono East regions have partnered with Integrity Commodities Limited (ICL) to promote the government’s flagship programme – Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ).
Integrity Commodities distributes hybrid seeds, fertilisers, weedicides and pesticides, and provides extension services on credit to farmers who pay back in kind with their farm produce for storage in warehouses.
Farmers, through the partnership, would also be offered readily available markets and good prices for their produce if they fail to get buyers.
The Chief Executive of ICL, Gideon Quaye, disclosed this during a Joint District PFJ 2.0 Aggregation and Stakeholders Sensitisation Programme at Ejura in the Ejura-Sekyedumase District of the Ashanti Region last Monday.
He said the organisation had secured close to 60,000 acres of land to be accessed by the farmers, whom he said had continuously demonstrated their quest to venture into commercial farming but needed some form of expertise and logistical support.
Mr Quaye said so far, they had impacted over 60,000 farmers across their operational zones: Ashanti, Bono East and Ahafo regions, since they joined the programme.
He stated that the support mechanism would not only improve agriculture in these areas, but would also improve food security and the economic fortunes of the beneficiary farmers, and called on the farmers to take advantage of the scheme.
The acting Ashanti Director of Agriculture, Matilda Owirebi Danso, said the government, through the launch of phase II of the PFJ programme, had introduced the Ghana Agriculture and Agribusiness Platform (GhAAP), a digital platform developed to coordinate, manage and monitor the operations of the second phase of the project.
She said once farmers downloaded the app via their phones and keyed in their requests, they could get access to the numerous benefits of the scheme.
The MCE of Ejura Sekyedumase, Dr Kingsley Osei, stressed that a major concern for farmers was post-harvest losses, and lauded the initiative for introducing warehouses to help store food items of farmers.
He said the municipality was blessed with fertile soil, and urged the youth to take advantage of the programme and consider agriculture as a major business to maximise profit, as well as create jobs and ensure food security.
Some farmers shared their appreciation for the partnership, which they said had improved their annual yields from an average of 1.7 metric tonnes per hectare to five metric tonnes per hectare.
