Govt to extend relief programme to farmers & fishermen

The government is to extend its programme on micro credit support to farmers, fishermen and small and medium scale entrepreneurs in the Eastern Region under the Emergency Social Relief Programme (ESRP).

The Birim South District Chief Executive, Mr Yaw Amprofi announced this at Akim Oda on Friday at a one-day workshop organised by the Adventist Development and 2Relief Agency (ADRA) to brief its collaborating institutions on the agency's new programme for the next five years.

About 100 Stakeholders from Birim South, Kwaebibirim, Suhum/Kraboa Coaltar and West Akim Districts attended the workshop.

Mr Amprofi said that the success of the credit programme would depend on the repayment of the loans, which would serve as a revolving fund to enable others also to benefit.

He appealed to ADRA for assistance in the provision of portable water, increased access to sanitation facilities and relief assistance in the form of building materials to disaster victims in the rural communities.

Giving an overview of ADRA's activities, Mr Paul Osono, a Planning Officer said, in the past five years, ADRA supported 2,000 farmers in 10 communities within the 10 districts in the Eastern Region to cultivate over 2,000 hectares of citrus.

In addition to the agro-forestry programmes, ADRA also conducted nutrition and sanitation programmes, focusing on issues relating to personal hygiene, environmental sanitation and sanitary food preparation.

A Senior Field Project Officer, Mr Simon S. Saka said, under its credit programme, ADRA would support project farmers with improved seed maize, plantain suckers and citrus seedlings.

He said all credit to farmers would be disbursed using group methodology of the village bank concept, in which farmers would be organised into groups of between 20 to 25.

The Eastern Regional Co-ordinator of ADRA In-charge of Food and Nutrition, Mrs Miriam Tetteh-Atta announced that the agency in partnership with the Agricultural Research Station of the University of Ghana at Kade would produce various citrus seedlings and planting suckers for farmers.