PSI ON OIL PALM GRINDS TO A HALT ....(Page 22)

Story: Emmanuel Modey, Hohoe Fodome

The President’s Special initiative (PSI) on oil palm in the Volta Region which was started in 2005/06 with grandeur, has ground to a halt.
A visit to one such site at Fodome in the Hohoe District by the Daily Graphic last Wednesday provided a miserable picture.
The site operated by Farm and Farm Products Company in conjunction with the government was overgrown with weeds and nursed seedlings which should have been transplanted since September, last year, were still in the pre-nursery.
The Co-ordinator of the project, Mr Samuel Dzobu, who conducted this reporter round, said the government abandoned the project after pumping an initial GH¢50,000 for the pre-nursery segment of the project.
According to him, last year, he had 100,000 seed nuts for the nursery. This, he did, and with the expectation that further funds would be made available for the transfer of the nursed seedlings into the main field so that by June next year, they would have been ready for distribution to 800 farmers to plant 1,500 acres.
With the dry season approaching he was at his wits’ end because he could not dispose of the seedlings in the state they were.
According to him, their first seedlings of 2005/06 season benefited 700 farmers in the catchment area of 25 kilometres radius.
Mr Dzebu, a retired agricultural officer, regretted that although he did not see any future for the seedlings, he still had to spend money pumping water twice a week on the seedlings.
Mr Dzebu said under the PSI, the operators were to procure seedlings for distribution to farmers on high purchase for four years and in the fifth year an oil-processing plant would be established in the area to process the oil palm produced by the farmers.
“And it is only here that the cost of the seedlings bought by the farmers would be deducted from the nuts they sell and reimburse the operators,” he said.