Initiatives to attract commercial agriculture in offing for Ahafo farmers

The Ahafo Regional Minister, Charity Gardiner, has revealed the Regional Coordinating Council's (RCC) plans to roll out special initiatives to support smallholder farmers to venture into commercial agriculture.

She explained that over the years, farmers in the region had largely engaged in small-scale farming, making it difficult for them to increase their income and boost the local economy.

Speaking during her first day in office at Goaso on Monday, Mrs Gardiner underscored the need for the region to take advantage of the large fertile land to produce different kinds of crops in large quantities to feed the agro-processing factories in the country.

Support

She said the RCC would offer financial and farm inputs incentives and organise a series of engagements and education with small-scale farmers to boost their interest in venturing into commercial agriculture.

Mrs Gardiner said the region would also leverage the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) policies and interventions to improve food production.

On tourism, she said there were several untapped tourism attractions in the region which should be developed to generate revenue for the development of the various districts and municipalities.

Mrs Gardiner said if the sites were properly developed, they could create employment for some youth and open commercial activities in the area.

"I will revisit some of the underdeveloped sites to assess their current state in order to brief the Tourism Ministry to develop them," she said.

On administrative issues, she said she would not accept lateness and lackadaisical attitude from public workers towards government business in the region.

"I will want all of us to transact government business with seriousness as if it's our own established business," he said.

Mrs Gardiner appealed to the heads of department and other civil service employees to support her administration to succeed.

"I strongly believe that your motives are to enhance development in the region, and I will encourage all of you to work together to achieve our goals," he said.

Transparency

She urged them to ensure transparency and accountability in the discharge of their responsibilities.

"If you want to have a good working time with me, be transparent in all your dealings. You should be able to account for me when the need arises," she said.

Mrs Gardiner also appealed to the chiefs and people in the region to unite for the development of the region.

Also, she said some health facilities in the region were in a bad state, explaining that most of the facilities operate on broken beds, while other facilities lacked incubators and medical equipment and experienced frequent shortages of some drugs.

Mrs Gardiner said she had planned to collaborate with the Ministry of Health to address the issues, including posting additional doctors to improve healthcare delivery.

On roads, she said most of the roads in the region were in a deplorable state and mentioned the Hwidiem-Tepa, Sankore and Kasapin roads as some of the roads she had intended to give critical attention to.

She said the region was one of the food baskets of the country, hence the need to improve its road network to facilitate transportation of food items from farm gates to market centres and agro-processing factories.

Writer's email: biiya.ali@graphic.com.gh