Mustapha Ussif leading the team to tour the farm
The Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Mustapha Ussif, together with the governing board, recently paid a working visit to the Ejura Farms of the scheme in the Ashanti Region.The team was made up of the Board Chairman, Prof. Kofi Osei Akuoko, Mr. Godfred Kwame Fosu Agyen (board member), Nana Bediako Kyeremeh Ken (board member) and Mr. David Prah, the Public Affairs Director of the scheme.
The visit was to afford the board members and management the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the progress of the agricultural project which is being undertaken in the region as part of government’s flagship programme – Planting for Food and Jobs.
The delegation was received by the Ashanti Regional Director of NSS, Mr. Opoku Mensah, and the municipal chief executive of Ejura. They then proceeded to the Ejura-Sekyeredumase Traditional Council where they met with the Krontihene and people of Ejura. At the palace, they reminisced over the long-standing relationship between the people of Ejura and the National Service Scheme and appreciated the mutual benefits they had derived from each other over the years.
Mustapha Ussif expressed gratitude to the chiefs and people of Ejura for their continuous support to the scheme. He reassured them of the scheme’s commitment to develop and expand the farm to the benefit of the municipality and the country as a whole. He further pledged to help the community to build a fence wall for the Ejura Government Hospital as part of the scheme’s corporate social responsibility.
The delegation then headed to the 500-acre maize farm to inspect the progress of work and interacted with the staff and personnel working there. The Board Chairman, Prof. Kofi Osei Akuoko, was full of praise for the work done on the maize farm despite the fall armyworm epidemic. Mustapha Ussif commended the staff and personnel for the good work done and expressed satisfaction at what they saw.
He stated that more service personnel and volunteers would be posted to the farms in accordance with the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs Module’ of the scheme. The service personnel will augment the strength and capacity of the already existing staff and not just add up to their numbers. He mentioned that the scheme has the medium to long term intention of building warehouses and processing plants to add value to the maize harvested from the farm. He promised to construct boreholes at the farm site to ease water challenge as the scheme has procured a borehole rig for such a purpose.