By
James Amoh Jnr, GNA
Tema, Dec 6, GNA –
Mr Alfred Nii Ayi Clottey, Tema West
Municipal Director of Agriculture, says uncontrolled real estate development is
stripping urban Tema of fertile lands for agricultural purposes.
This, he said, was
detrimental to food security and called for measures to urgently reverse the
trend.
“It has become
very worrying, as most farmers in the municipality are thrown out of jobs as a
result of the phenomenon which has become very pervasive and hindering
agriculture in the Municipality,” he said.
The Municipal
Director of Agriculture was addressing the 35th National Farmers’
Day celebration held on Friday at Adjei-Kojo.
The 2019
celebration, the second in the municipality after its creation, was on the
national theme: “Enhancing small scale agriculture towards agribusiness
development” and geared towards celebrating the achievements of distinguished
farmers, fisher folks and processors.
Deserving farmers
and fisher folks were awarded prizes in various categories.
According to Mr Nii
Ayi Clottey, whiles the real estate industry was expanding in urban
communities, agriculture was struggling to maintain its stake, emphasizing that
the phenomenon had necessitated the need for farmers to leverage the modularity
of containerized farms and technology as a sustainable means of agriculture in
the Municipality.
He expressed
confidence that there could be a re-designing of the concept of Agriculture in
the Tema West Municipality with the prime objective of modernizing the sector
and making it more sustainable.
“As a
department, we will therefore use all technologies and pragmatic interventions
available to enhance agricultural activities of farmers, building their
capacity and re-orienting farmers to critically consider faming as business
ventures,” he said.
He indicated that
the Municipality had chalked some successes in promoting agriculture, and said
in the area of crop production under government’s flagship programme, Planting
for Food and Jobs, over 400 farmers had benefited from highly subsidized prices
for maize and vegetable inputs such as improved seeds and fertilizers.
As part of the
programme, he further noted that 540 farmers whose farms were affected by the
fall army warms were supplied with agrochemicals to salvage their crops and
boost production.
Mrs Adwoa Amoako,
Tema West Municipal Chief Executive, said government recognized agriculture as
a catalyst for economic growth hence there was need to adopt innovations in
developing the sector and promoting the Agribusiness across the value chain.
She explained that,
in promoting Agribusiness and dealing with the excesses in the sector,
government had initiated the Planting for food and Jobs (PFJ) and Rearing for
Food and Jobs (RFJ) flagship programmes to improve yields, access to market,
reducing post-harvest losses and enhancing extension services delivery.
She added that in spite
of the tremendous gains in ensuring food security in the Municipality, the
global menace of climate change was affecting crop production and needed
innovative strategies to address it and deal with its rippling effects.
Fifty two (52) year
old crop and live stock farmer, Adamu Naaba from Garu in the Upper East Region,
was crown the overall best farmer for the Tema West Municipality and for his
prize, he received; a tricycle, agrochemicals, cutlasses, Knapsack sprayer, set
of radio, box of alcoholic beverage, hamper among others.
GNA
