Mango Company alleviating poverty in Northern Region

Dipali (N/R), Oct.6, GNA - The Integrated Tamale Fruit Company (ITFC), a Ghanaian company operating in the Northern Region has initiated organic mango out-growers' scheme to help alleviate poverty in the region.

The scheme targeted at family units and informal groupings within the society and involving about 1,300 farmers, has helped each of the farmers to plant 100 mango seedlings.

Two thousand out-growers are expected to benefit from the scheme by the year 2007.

Mr. James Amaligo Nyaaba, an Assistant General Manager of the company made this known to President John Kufuor when he paid an inspection trip to the company's mango plantation at Dipali in the Savelugu/Nanton District.

President Kufuor was in the Northern Region to launch the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) for Northern Ghana Zone at Savelugu on Wednesday.

Mr. Nyaaba said the company had established 160 hectares nucleus farms, of which 130 hectares had been fully planted with four mango varieties under micro-springler irrigation.

Mr. Nyaaba said the company, with 180 permanent workers and 10 managerial staff of various fields of competence produced 340,192 mango seedlings annually at its central nursery.

He announced that the company would start the cultivation of jatropha, bamboo and crops that the northern sector had comparative advantage.

He said the company intended to work closely with the University for Development Studies (UDS), the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) and other partners in the research field to find solutions to agricultural problems, especially among horticultural crops in the three Northern Regions.

Mr. Nyaaba said indigenous fruit trees and wildlife were areas that the company was interested in adding: "We have plans to facilitate the integration of these into the company's programme".

He said the company had made ready 1,200 shea seedlings for transplanting in the biodiversity conservation areas and in out-grower fields while it had embarked on surface water harvesting through the construction of weirs for irrigation and community use.

Mr. Nyaaba said the company had introduced the "Children to School Project", to provide teachers' accommodation, volunteer teachers, school feeding, teaching and recreational facilities, as well as potable water for the communities. The company had also engaged the services of Peace Corps Volunteer to train its workers and community members on HIV/AIDS, he said.

President Kufuor commended the management of the company for investing in the region and urged the youth to take advantage of the scheme to enhance their income levels.

He said if there were peace in the area, investors would come to exploit the potentials of the region to benefit the people. President Kufuor mentioned sugarcane as one of the crops that the region had the potential of producing and invited investors to invest in it.