The Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, has called on newly recruited Extension Agents for the “Planting For Food and Jobs” campaign to tackle their duties with all the seriousness it deserves.
The Regional Minister was speaking at an orientation programme for the Agents who were recruited through the Youth Employment Agency in Ho on Thursday 30th March, 2017.
Dr. Letsa advised the officers not to see their recruitment as a way of solving their unemployment issues but rather see it as an opportunity to groom themselves for higher positions in the Ministry of Agriculture or any other public sector, whilst contributing to the success of the policy and the economic growth of the nation.
He indicated that, agriculture is the most important sector in the Ghanaian economy followed by health and education.
This he explained by saying that, “If the people eat well, they would not fall sick” and in the same vein, “a hungry child cannot study in school.”
In his welcome address, the Regional Director of Agriculture, Mr. Kofi Larbi, charged the District Directors of Agriculture in the region to train the officers to be posted to their districts in Agric extension methodologies to enable them deliver effectively.
Mr. Larbi, told the agents that, their future recruitment into the department of Agriculture depends upon how they perform on the field.
He advised them to acquire more knowledge in the areas of rice, maize and vegetable productions, since these are the areas of concentration in the Volta Region.
In another development, the Regional Minister joined engineers from Urban roads department to inspect progress of work on the Asphalt overlay within the Ho township.
Interacting with the Regional Minister, Engineer De-Graft Aful, the Deputy Manager of Maintenance and Operations at the Department of Urban Roads headquarters, lamented about the way drivers are indiscriminately pouring petrol on the asphalt.
These he said would weaken the asphalt and the road would start developing pot holes in a short while if measures are not put in place to educate drivers and other road users to desist from such acts.
