National Service Authority D-G commits to making agriculture appealing to youth

Felix Gyamfi, Director-General of the National Service Authority (NSA), has pledged the Authority’s willingness to make agriculture attractive to the youth and help address food challenges in Ghana.

“We are transforming the National Service from a very dormant institution that was just posting to one fully engaged in agribusiness and then training our graduates to specialise in fields that will promote national development.

When that is done, we will reduce food imports, provide employment and ensure a stable economy for all”, he assured.

Mr Gyamfi, who was touring Farms of the NSA at Abotantire in the Sekyere Afram Plains District in the Ashanti Region, said the Authority was investing heavily in agriculture with the assistance of partners under the HAPPY Project.

He stated that currently, at Abotantire, the Authority was cultivating 4,000 hectares of maize in the major season and planting the same quantity of soybean in the minor season.
Again, the Abotantire NSA Farms would seed 100 acres of tomatoes every year.

The plan is that “wherever there is land in this country, with the help of partners who have tractors and other inputs, we will work with them and do farming”.
He cited areas across the country where the NSA was pursuing farming activities, including 500 acres of maize at Ejura, 250 acres at Branam, 2,050 acres in partnership with Akate farms at Amantin and 100 acres of tomatoes with partners at Yapei.

Going forward, the NSA will farm 1,000 acres at Ankaful, 200 acres at Valley View University and about 1,000 acres in the Volta Region, the Director-General further disclosed.
He said the Authority was projecting to expand far beyond what the HAPPY Project components could take.

In this regard, the Authority would soon begin to build poultry farms in clusters in Senior High Schools (SHS) that had enough land to make eggs available and chicken to feed the people.
On irrigation, Mr. Gyamfi mentioned that heavy investments had been made to allow all-year-round farming.

He said for personnel working on these farms, the NSA was finding a pathway, adding that they were in talks with organisations including the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) to offer special training for those demonstrating capacities to build themselves in the agricultural and business space.

Source: myjoyonline.com