Over 100,000 post-national service personnel to be recruited into sustainable agriculture initiatives

The government has announced plans to engage more than 100,000 post-national service personnel in sustainable agriculture and cocoa enterprise initiatives to boost the country’s food security and cocoa output.

The beneficiary service personnel would receive micro grants, input supply and technical support from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, World Food Programme, Ghana Enterprise Agency, Tree Crop Development Authority and MasterCard Foundation.

They would have access to land banks to enable them to form co-operatives in order to engage in cluster farming across the country.

Mr George Opare Addo, the Minister of Youth Development and Empowerment, made this known on the floor of Parliament on Friday.

The Minister was responding to questions from legislators over measures government was putting in place to ensure post-national service personnel engage in meaningful ventures.

Mr Opare Addo said government, through the National Service Authority, had secured 20,000 acres of land at Kumawu and was in the process of acquiring additional 30,000 acres for distribution to post-national service personnel to engage in cluster farming.

The Minister said the beneficiaries would be paired with experienced cocoa farmers across the country to mentor them to grow cocoa to boost the country’s cocoa output as well as engage in livestock rearing and other agribusiness enterprises.

The beneficiaries, the Minister explained, would pay back the support government had offered them when their farms and agribusinesses begin to yield fruits in the near future.

Source: GNA

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