"Government is committed to ensure food security," Ofosu-Ampofo

Donkorkrom, May, 20, GNA - Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, the Eastern Regional Minister, on Thursday reiterated government's commitment to ensure food security in the country by way of encouraging the youth to go into agriculture.

He said government would provide logistics and would support the Youth in Agriculture Programme to make it more attractive to the youth. Mr Ofosu Ampofo said this when he accompanied Mr Ibrahim Adams, the board chairman of the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB), on a visit to the Kwanim Farms in the Kwahu North District.

Kwanim Farms is a private company established in 2007 by three Ghanaians to produce large quantities of food crops.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said government was committed to the development of the area by improving the road network, schools and health centres. He said the government would soon award most of the feeder roads on contract in order to open up the area.

Mr Adams commended the management of the farms for the hard work done and said the ADB had so far committed about GHC 3,000.000 into the farms and would continue to invest more resources to make the place viable. He said the bank would this year make available financial support to some individual farmers and farming groups.

Mr Adams said the bank would extend its attention to the Brong-Ahafo and Ashanti regions to support some youth groups who had gone into large-scale farming.

Mr Alex Tinkorang, the Managing Director of Kwanim Farms, said they had cultivated about 450 hectares of maize, 60 hectares of soybean and 20 hectares of watermelon and would soon cultivate cowpea and other crops. He said the major challenge facing the company was lack of access roads to some parts of the area and electricity and appealed to the government to help solve those problems to help reduce the large sums of money being spent on power generation.

Mr Tinkorang said they would make the place available to any individual and groups who want to learn new farming techniques. The District Chief Executive for Kwahu North, Mr Charles Evans Apraku, commended the management of the farms for their commitment to the area by way of supporting other farming groups to also develop. He said the district in collaboration with the company had registered 250 people mostly youth under the Youth in Agriculture programme and would soon be engaged.