Agric Minister Inaugurates GH¢43M Dam Yilo Krobo

Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, the Minister of Food and Agriculture, has inaugurated a GH¢43 million dam for the Komokli Community, a farming village near Oterkporlu in the Yilo Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region.

The dam is expected to irrigate over 60 hectares of farmland in the community to improve the yield of farmers.

The Minister, as part of his two-day working visit to the Region,

handed over the pumping machines for the dam and over 50 bags of organic fertilizer to the farmers.

Later at a durbar at Obawale, the Minister announced that the sale of subsidised fertilizer, under the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), would end on December 31 and urged fertilizer distributors who have exceeded their targets to contact the Ministry’s extension officers for supply.

He said the subsidy also covered Urea and not NPK alone and expressed appreciation at the performance of Eastern Region under the PFJ.

He said records indicate that the number of beneficiaries in the Region increased from 17,000 in the first year to more than 54,000 farmers this year.

Dr Akoto said the PFJ was targeting 500,000 farmers this year but his tour of six regions showed that the project had already achieved the target adding that he was yet to visit Western, Central, Greater Accra and the Volta regions.

He said the Ministry had awarded contract for the construction of 80 warehouses across the country to provide storage for the excess food expected under the PFJ and that he would seek Cabinet’s approval for the construction of 80 more warehouses next year.

Dr Akoto said the Government would soon receive large consignments of agriculture machinery for small scale farmers from Brazil and India to enhance food production in the country.