Project launched to benefit rural farmers

Tree Investment Policy (TIP), an income-generation project designed to improve the living conditions of farmers and the rural folk, has been launched at Fumesua in the Ashanti Region.

The project, an initiative of Vision 2050 Forestry Ghana Limited, an environmental non-governmental organization (NGO), is to provide its network farmers with financial assistance to encourage them to work towards achieving their overall objective of recovering 50 per cent of the degraded forest of the country.

The NGO, operating in Akim-Oda, Akropong, Kwamang, Wassa-Akropong, Nkoranza, Akorabo, and other parts of the country has, to date, planted trees of different species in 850 communities through a network of 300, 000 farmers.

Ms. Shelley Snell, the in-coming Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said as an investment plan, the Policy allows interested groups and corporate institutions to contribute $50 per tree and earn $500 in the fifth year through its tree lease and buy back agreement.

The minimum investment, she said, stood at 100 trees and that part of the money realized would be channeled into processing of lumber for domestic and international markets and also into administrative functions.

For this reason, the NGO is liaising with some Italian firms to assist them acquire equipment for processing of lumber into charcoal briquettes and other consumable products.

Ms. Snell said the TIP would convert 200, 000 of its trees into cash to generate funds to sustain its activities, particularly combating rural poverty.

She said her organization was determined to harness natural and technical resources as well as international collaboration to stem the tide of global warming through tree-planting.

Mr. Bernard Ampofo, the Marketing and Business Development Manager of the Organization, affirmed the resolve of the NGO to cultivate one billion trees over a five-year period to help improve Ghana’s forest cover.

He appealed to the public to patronize the TIP project to assist them achieve their vision.