60,000 FARMERS GET TRAINING IN AGRIC PRODUCTION (BACK PAGE, OCT 9, 2010)

SIXTY thousand farmers in the country have benefited from various training programmes initiated by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) for increased agricultural production.
Additionally, each of the farmers received a starter package of $230 for the cultivation of an acre of farmland.
According to an official of the MiDA, Nana Owusu Ofori, the package also included free clearance of land that had led to increased productivity by more than 50 per cent.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of a regional workshop for stakeholders from seven participating districts in the MiDA project in Ho last Thursday, Nana Ofori, who works at the community and public outreach department of MiDA, said the mindset of farmers had changed from subsistence to commercial and business farming methods.
He said farmers had found real value in the linkages existing between agricultural credit, cultivation, transportation and rural development with the application of irrigation, information and communication technology (ICT), first-class roads modern infrastructure, among others.
Nana Ofori mentioned a floating dock at Akosombo and two new ferries at Ekye Amanfrom and Adeiso and the uprooting of tree stumps from the Volta Lake to expand the water way for navigation and the construction of a-75 km first-class road from Donkorkrom to Asante-Akyem as some of the achievements under the transportation component of the project .
“The interventions were all aimed at opening up the area for trade”, he emphasised, adding that the authority will work with established institutions at the district and institutional levels to perform their mandate.
Opening the workshop, the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development (MLRD), Mr Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, said the project was crucial to achieving the aims of the decentralisation programme.
In an address, the Volta Regional Co-ordinating Director, Mr Vincent Adzato-Ntem, said the workshop was an opportunity for participants to make the MiDA interventions impact positively on their lives.
He asked them to reposition themselves to ensure that the objectives were achieved and sustained after the project, adding that what was essential was that the beneficiaries must be able to embrace and own the projects.