Launching Of Farm-Plus Project At Garu

25-06-2010 Narration: The Acting Project Manager of the Garu Presbyterian Agricultural Station, Martin Abanga has made a passionate appeal to the government and fertilizer companies to as a matter of urgency help alleviate the plight of farmers by making available fertilizers and other farm inputs at subsidized prices. He said the unavailability coupled with the high cost of fertilizers poses a great challenged to farmers particularly those in the three regions of the north. Mr. Abanga expressed this concern at the opening of a flexi voucher fair for farmers held at Garu in the Garu-Tempane District of the Upper East Region. The fair dubbed: ‘Food for Work” forms part of the farm-plus project aimed at improving food security in the region.

CUE IN………………..
END CUE………………
ANCR V/O




Report
The farm-plus project sponsored by the European Commission with support from Care International and the Garu Agricultural Station, is the first of its kind in the country. The project which is in line with the Food and Agricultural Recovery Programme is in response to the 2007 long period of drought and floods disasters in the three Northern Regions. Its objective is to reduce hunger and poverty among affected flood victims of northern Ghana, particularly, small scale farmers in the wake of food price hikes. Mr. Abanga in a speech said the fair through the farm-plus project would afford poor farmers the opportunity to purchase food stuffs and other farm inputs of their own choice with vouchers in their possession from vendors. He noted that 1,800 beneficiary farmers in deprived communities had been selected to benefit from the package. Some of the beneficiary communities include Tempane, Burankuon, Korikomada, Tankpasi,Yabraug, and Nafteg among others. He expressed sadness about the unavailability of fertilizer inputs for the beneficiaries and called on the authorities concerned to come to the aid of the farmers in order to improve their crop yield. This, he said, is necessary due to the impending rainfall. The Garu-Tempane District Co-ordinating Director, Mr. Abdullai Abubakar, commended the donors for their immense contribution in ensuring improved food security in the area. He also entreated the beneficiary farmers to adopt safe farming practices to increase food production in the region and the country in general. Mr. Abubakar also took the opportunity to solicit financial support to the weak and the aged in the society. He also called on the donors to support the government’s Livelihood Empowerment Programme to help cater for the welfare of the poor and aged. He cautioned the people against bush burning and farming along water bodies. The Project Officer of Farm plus, Mr. Issaku Hardi said 200 communities in the three northern regions have been targeted for the project. 120 communities in the Upper West Region and 40 communities each in the Garu-Tempane and East Mamprusi Districts. Mr. Hardi expressed his outfit’s preparedness to initiate a special Programme in 2011 aimed at empowering women farmers in the three northern regions and called for the support of donors in achieving the set objective. In all 497 beneficiary farmers received 1 bag of maize during the voucher fair. The fair attracted farmers, community members, and representatives from the various donor agencies among others.

END