Mr Adam Aboagye delivering one of the seedlings to the famers
GOVERNMENT, through the Sunyani West District Assembly, has launched this year’s free cashew seedlings distribution to farmers under the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) of the Food and Planting Job programme (PFJ).
According to the assembly, its agriculture directorate has nursed over 160,000 cashew seedlings at various part of the district including Fiapre, Nsoatre, Dumase. It urged farmers in the communities to go for them for planting.
The district agricultural director, Adam Boakye, who supervised the distribution, advised the farmers who are mostly women, to adhere to best agro practices to get maximum yield.
“Your planting distance (spacing) should be 10m x10m and the seedlings must also pegged. He also explained the tree crops can be interspaced with food crops such as maize or cassava so that as they wait for yield from the cash crop, they also harvest food for domestic consumption.
“Don’t go and dump the seedlings in your houses because officers shall be coming round to monitor your activities and progress.”
He also advised them against using unprescribed chemicals on the seedlings which can affect it or kill them.
“These are high yielding seedlings and if given the right agro treatment, should be yielding fruit between two and five years,” he said.
Each farmer receives between forty and 100 seedlings. Farmers within the district grow between two and half acres while a few has up to 10 acres.
He said since government launched the programme to improve rural economic development by improving income generation of farmers, the district has distributed thousands of free cashew seedlings to farmers who have registered for the programme praising the success story of the agriculture policy.
District Chief Executive Evans Kusi Boadum, who gave the seedlings to the farmers, “Under the policy, various districts and municipalities depending on their climatic conditions are growing mango, rubber, oil palm, coconut and coffee. We have opted to grow cashew so let’s embrace it well.”
He admonished the elderly, pensioners and unemployed youth who roamed the communities aimlessly, to embrace the PERD and reap its benefits as government is providing all incentives free.
FROM Daniel Y Dayee