PROGRAMME TO ENHANCE ROOTS TUBER PRODUCTION BEGINS (BACK PAGE)

AN 80-year Roots and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme (RTIMP), under which small-scale farmers will be assisted with credit package to enhance production in roots and tubers, has been launched at Nkwanta in the Volta Region.
This is a follow-up to the Root and Tuber Improvement Programme (RTIP), which ran from 1999 to 2005.
The programme, under the initiative of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and made possible through a bilateral agreement between the Government of Ghana and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), follows the success of RTIP.
In all, 60 districts throughout the country will benefit from the programme, with Nkwanta being the only one in the Volta Region.
Outlining the details of the programme, the agronomist in charge, Dr Stephen Asante, said the goal of the project was to enhance income and food security to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor and to build a market-based system to ensure profitability at all levels in the value chain.
He said the project had three components, namely support to increase commodity chain linkages; support to root and tuber production; the up-grading of small-scale root; and tubers processing, business and marketing skills.
“Farmers to benefit from the RTIMP should be in groups of 12 - 25, and all the extension agents who are attached to the project will be provided with the necessary logistics to enhance their duties,” he said.
He called on the groups to be ready to pay 10 per cent of the cost of equipment they wished to purchase for processing for the programme to add 30 per cent as a grant.
“The 60 per cent left would come as a loan from the North Volta Rural Bank, Nkwanta, and that is what they would have to pay with any interest and on whatever terms agreed between them and the bank,” Dr Asante said.
He expressed the hope that under the project, gari processing would improve, since first class gari was non-existent.
Launching the project, the Nkwanta South District Chief Executive, Mr Joseph Denteh, said the government was determined to put in place the necessary social amenities and infrastructure to raise the quality of lives of the people.
He further urged the people to make use of the numerous opportunities available at the assembly to reduce poverty, ignorance and disease in society.
Earlier in a welcoming address, the Nkwanta District Director of MoFA, Mr Apepe Amankwatta, urged the farmers to endeavour to work hard to justify the huge investment made for their benefit so as to be able to repay the loans on time for others to benefit.