Over 450 farmers in the Asante-Akyem Central Municipality in the Ashanti Region have received about 105,000 free palm seedlings under government’s Planting for Food and Jobs and Rural Development programme as part of the community’s mass production of palm seedlings to encourage more farmers to embrace the programme.
The Municipal Chief Executive, Susan Akomeah speaking to Adom News at a ceremony to honour the distribution, said the initiative demonstrates government’s commitment to economically empower farmers to improve their living conditions.
“The expectation of government is that the incomes of farmers who participate in the Planting for Food and Jobs programme would significantly improve and by extension impact positively on the lives of their dependents.
“I will entreat the youth to take advantage of the heavily subsidised packages under the programme and go into farming,†she urged.
The Municipal Director of Agriculture, Ernest Kwame Kusi, disclosed that an Oil Palm Processing Factory at Asante AKyem Central under the 1District 1Factory programme is being developed by the Minerals Commission as part of the anti-galamsey drive by the government.
The field officer for Mineral Development, Joseph Mensah, said the programme was based on government’s policy to provide the needed raw material base for the oil palm processing factory under construction.
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