Farmers advised to pay for supplies under hi-tech application

Kumasi, Aug. 11, GNA - Nana Kwame Amankwatia, Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Ghana Cocoa, Coffee and Sheanut Farmers Association (GCCSFA), has said that the hi-tech system introduced by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) was meant to improve on the foreign exchange earnings and incomes of farmers.

He has therefore, appealed to farmers to pay monies for inputs like fertilisers, cocobre and others supplied by MOFA. Nana Amankwatia, who made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi on Thursday, said, "the inputs were not gifts".

He said the hi-tech system was introduced three years ago by the MOFA to supply inputs like fertilisers and others through the Licensed Cocoa Buying Companies (LBCs) to help farmers rehabilitate their farms. Nana Amankwatia, who is also the Ashanti Regional Chief Farmer, stated that the government had recognised the vital role of farmers in the country and asked them to take advantage of the opportunity and expand their farms.

He urged the MOFA to involve the association another time in the supply of such inputs to farmers so that the association could help retrieve the monies from them. Nana Amankwatia stressed the need for them to take advice of agricultural extension agents to increase their yield.