Farmers urged to intensify fire prevention to sustain PFJ gains

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By Gideon D. Ebbah, GNA 

Nkwanta (Ash), Jan 26, GNA – Mr. Ellis
Aloryi, the Sekyere Kumawu District Fire Officer of the Ghana National Fire
Service (GNFS), has urged farmers to intensify efforts on bush fire prevention
in order to safeguard the gains of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) as well
as the Planting for Exports and Rural Development (PERD).

He said the two government flagship
programmes, were crucial investments and interventions to ensure sustained food
security towards national development, thus everything must be done to
consolidate the gains.

Mr Aloryi was speaking at a public forum
held at Nkwanta, a farming community in  
the Sekyere Kumawu District of Ashanti, as part of a district
collaborative fire prevention sensitization programme.

Under the intensified fire prevention
education campaign, the District Directorate of the National Disaster Management
Organization (NADMO), is partnering the District’s GNFS and the Ministry of
Food and Agriculture (MOFA), to educate the farmers on the dangers of setting
fires on their farms during the dry harmattan season.

Fires could easily spread to destroy lives
and properties due to the harsh weather conditions, during these periods.

The campaign has been taken to eight of the
communities in that District, they include;

Nkwanta, Bahankra, Temante, Bodomase,
Abotanso, Wonoo and Pepease, all in that District.

The District Fire Officer, though could not
readily give statistics on fires and its fatalities in the District, however,
pointed to negligence as the main cause of domestic, bush and other fires in
the District and called on the public to be vigilant so as to prevent fire
incidences and accompanying fatalities.

Mr. Emmanuel Obeng, the District Director of
the NADMO, said a Fire Volunteer Corps numbering more than 600 which was
inaugurated last year in February at Pepease for 23 communities, to facilitate,
promote and sustain the prevention and control of bush and domestic fires.

“These fire volunteer corps in your
communities have received the requisite training in the prevention and control
of bush fires and how to identify and report bush fire offenders to the
appropriate authorities.

He called for collaboration between the
volunteers and community members in finding sustainable solution to fire
prevention”, the NADMO Director added.

“The reminder to farmers on the
consciousness of fire prevention in seasons like this is crucial in the
prevention and destruction of life and farm properties which have been rampant
in the area in the past years.

Though we do not have statistical records to
buttress our point, we believe the wails and cries of farmers every year due to
bush burning, is evidence enough”, Mr. Obeng added.

Mr. Godfrey Appiah Acheampong, the District
Director of MOFA impressed upon the farmers to develop fire belts – setting
protective boundaries around their farms in the event of clearing and burning
their lands during seasons like these, so that the fires do not spread to other
farmlands.

GNA