Lack of info & base maps affect planning in Kumasi outskirts

Kumasi (Ashanti), 21st May ?99 ?

Planning within communities at the outskirts of Kumasi is handicapped by information gap and inadequate base maps on renewable natural resources.

Dr. Nsiah Gyabaah, Co-ordinator of the Kumasi Natural Resources Management Research Project (KNRMP), who announced this, said there is no information on which villages are growing or declining in population or in area.

Dr. Gyabaah was giving an overview of the project at a one-day training on, "The use of poultry manure at peri-urban (outskirts) communities around the Metropolis, in Kumasi on Thursday.

The training workshop was organised by the Ashanti Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and attended by 35 participants in Kumasi.

The Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom launched the project in 1997, under its natural resources systems programme of research. It aims at converting research results into tangible products of direct value to peri-urban communities in Kumasi.

Dr. Gyabaah said village development planning is weak or non-existent and there is limited community participation in planning.

"Co-ordination between villages and districts is weak and district departments often lack integration both with other departments in the same district and with others."

He said a research conducted during the project revealed that no strategic regional planning was taking place, while district development plans have not attempted to address identified problems and constraints.