The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) have launched an exercise to reclaim degraded lands in the country for food production.

The exercise will be carried out in areas that have suffered massive environmental degradation from illegal mining and lumbering.

Codenamed: “Operation Dimiter”, it forms part of efforts by the military to support the government's Green Ghana initiative to protect the environment and ensure food security.

To kick-start the project, the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Vice-Admiral Seth Amoama, led a team of officers and men from the GAF, as well as representatives of other stakeholders, to plant some 500 coconut seedlings on a four-acre land at the Air Force Base at Burma Camp in Accra.

According to Vice-Admiral Amoama, environmental degradation resulting from illegal mining and lumbering, including bush burning, called for concerted efforts by the military and relevant stakeholders to adopt strategies towards reclamation.

"Operation Dimiter will, therefore, see the various garrisons, particularly in areas where environmental devastation has occurred, undertaking reclamation of the degraded lands, which they will in turn convert into farmlands," he added.

Significance

Vice-Admiral Amoama said apart from helping to enhance the greening of the environment, the exercise would also support food production and job creation.

He said the project, which used to exist in the 1970s, was being reactivated in all eight garrisons across the country, where various units would undertake a series of agriculture-related activities, in addition to the tree planting exercise.

Among activities to be undertaken were general farming, animal husbandry and poultry production, which the CDS said could enhance the capacity of personnel and prepare them to engage in agricultural programmes after retirement.

On the sustainability of the project, the CDS said a directive had been given to all garrisons to ensure that Operation Dimeter was successful, and that best efforts would duly be recognised and rewarded accordingly every year.

"In view of this, a permanent committee has been put in place to coordinate and oversee the implementation and sustainability of the programme.

"From the foregoing, Operation Dimiter could become a catalyst for the success of the Green Ghana project and I, therefore, entreat every military man to be committed to its sustainability," he said.

The Base Commander of the Air Force, Commodore Joshua Mensah-Larkai, urged all units at the garrisons to grow crops based on the peculiarity of the soil in their respective zones.

He commended the military high command for the effort at reactivating Operation Dimiter, which he said presented an opportunity to the various units to cultivate food crops to feed themselves, while saving the environment.

Revenue generation

The Greater Accra Regional Director of Agriculture, Mr Eric Hudson-Asamani, said Ghana could generate an annual revenue of $2 billion from commodities such as cashew, oil palm, citrus, rubber, shea and mango.

That, he said, would reduce the dependency on cocoa as the country's most exportable commodity within the agriculture value chain.

The director said under the Green Ghana project, there was free distribution of seedlings as a way of encouraging the public to plant more trees.

"I encourage members of the public to visit any district agric office in the country to pick the free seedlings for us to create wealth together," Mr Hudson-Asamani added.