The Tree Crop Development Authority (TCDA) through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is to distribute five million seedlings of the six tree crops to farmers this year.
Namely mango, cashew, shea, oil palm, rubber and coconut, the move is to expand production of these tree crops in the country
Mr William Quaitoo Adjapong, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of TCDA, disclosed this to the media on the sidelines of close out meeting of Bono-Asante Atea project at Sampa in the Bono Region yesterday.
The Bono-Asante Atea (BAAT) project is a three-year cashew development intervention implemented by ADRA and three co-applicants, Ejura Sekyere Odumase, Wenchi Municipal Assemblies and Jaman North Districts, to increase employment and cashew value chain industry for 14,500 women, men and the youth.
The meeting was to share the success story of the three-year ADRA-Ghana with 800,000 euros sponsorship from the European Union implementation programme of players and actors in the cashew value chain in five selected districts across the country, particularly Jaman North, Wenchi, Banda, Nkoranza and Ejura.
The CEO during a presentation on the mandate of the TCDA indicated that the Authority would this year embark on mass registration of farmers under the priority areas of TCDA in order to give them the needed support to increase production.
He urged farmers to take advantage of the opportunity and register through their farmer Associations to benefit from the support.
Mr Quaitoo Adjapong, however, cautioned District MoFA Directors who would be undertaking the registration exercise to do their work devoid of partisan considerations, stressing that the support from the Authority would be for all farmers but not for a special group of people.
This, he noted would help achieve the goal and mandate of the TCDA.
The Country Director of ADRA-Ghana, Dr Yao Kpakpo Brown, said a lot of farmers and actors in the cashew value-chain had benefited from the training they had received from the programme.
He commended the European Union and the British government for the financial support which aided in the training of the participants.
He urged the beneficiary participants to apply the knowledge they had acquired to enhance their farming business.
Dr Kpakpo Brown also commended Agriculture Extension officers and the selected district assemblies for their cooperation and support during the period of the project.
The Bono Regional Agric Director, Denis Abugri Amenga, on his part called for a collaboration between stakeholders in the agriculture sector to drive the sector into greater heights.
According to him the Department of Agric as an implementing agency was poised and ready to push the sector to achieve results, adding that ADRA-Ghana had supported cashew farmers in the Bono Region.
He stressed the need for old cashew trees to be replaced and the need to adopt the right technologies to increase yield.
Some of the participants who spoke to the Ghanaian Times indicated that they used to harvest about three bags per an acre, but now they harvest between seven to 10 bags per an acre after training.
They called for more support from stakeholders in order to boost the sector.
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, SAMPA
