Yilo Krobo District Assembly establishes land bank

The Yilo Krobo District Assembly had acquired 40.4 hectares off the Somanya-Dodowa road, to serve as a land bank for prospective investors in the agricultural sector in the district.

Portion of the land would also be used as a refuse collection site to generate compost organic manure for farmers to improve their yields and thereby increase their incomes.

The District Chief Executive, Sub- Lieutenant Christian Tettey (rtd) said in an interview at Somanya that it was part of efforts to boost agriculture in the district.

He said access to land remained a major hindrance to agro-investment in the district, adding that the creation of the land bank was to encourage many more agro-concerns to invest in the area.

He explained that apart from land litigation, the local farmers, especially the youth, did not have access to credit to entice them into agriculture.

The assembly, he said, had, therefore, decided, to offer all such youth groups that would avail themselves of the land bank project credit from the Poverty Alleviation Fund and the necessary farming inputs.

Sub. Lt. Tettey expressed the hope that the implementation of the project would eliminate the constant default in repayment of credits granted under the PAF facility since officials from the assembly could easily re-claim the loans from the beneficiaries operating on land.

He said, 50 million cedis, out of the estimated 150 million cedis on the 50- year leased land had already been paid to the owners.