Farmer appeals to youth to embrace Cassava Initiative

Awutu Panim (Central Region) -- The 1994 Second National Best Farmer, Nai Kwao Otuo, has said the most enduring legacy President John Agyekum Kufuor could bequeath to the nation was the industrial starch factory that the government was establishing at Awutu Bawjiase in the Central Region.

He appealed to Ghanaians not to play politics with the project but do all they could individually and collectively to ensure its success. Nai Otu, chairman of the Central Region branch of the Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen, was addressing 200 tenant farmers at a meeting a Awutu Panim in the Central Region.

He appealed to jobless youth in the Awutu Traditional area to take up the challenge to cultivate large acres of industrial starch cassava farms to feed the factory. Nai Otu urged Awutus in particular to be thankful to President Kufuor for citing the project in the area and appealed to chiefs and opinion leaders to put their religious, ethnic and political differences aside and do all they could to encourage the youngsters to embrace it.

He praised the farmers operating in the Awutu Traditional Area for their dedicated and commitment to farming that had contributed to the increased food production in the Central Region and nation at large.

Nai Otu however, stressed the need for the farmers to use greater part of their earnings on their children's education. Opani Kwesi Mensah, spokesman for the farmers, assured President Kufuor and the nation of their preparedness to expand their cassava farms and also maintain them effectively to sustain the Ayensu Starch Factory.