Dubidi Initiative: Govt targets 10,000 hectares for rice cultivation in Northern, North East regions …50,000 hectares for maize in UWR – Dr Otokunor

 The govern­ment is targeting 10,000 hectares of farmland for rice cultivation on pilot basis in the Northern and North East Regions under the “Dubidi Initiative”, the Director in charge of Presidential Initiatives in Agriculture and Agri­business (PIAA) at the office of the President, Dr Peter Boamah Otokunor, has disclosed.

This forms part of the gov­ernment’s effort to increase food production across board under the “Feed Ghana Programme.”

The Director made the disclo­sure here at Nasia in the West Mamprusi Municipality of the North East Region when he engaged with farmers and youth groups at their various farmlands, as part of his working visit to some of the farmlands in the area on Wednesday.

He said they had so far regis­tered close to 9,000 farmers and they were anticipating that they might even overshoot the 10,000 acres of land.

Dr Otokunor indicated that because it was the first time that they were coming out with the initiative, they were only trying three food commodities in the pilot basis.

The food commodities, he men­tioned, included rice, soya bean and maize.

“With the maize we are culti­vating it in the Upper West whilst the rice and soya bean in North­ern and North East Regions,” he stated

Furthermore, Dr Otokunor added that for the pilot in the Upper West for the cultivation of the maize, they were targeting 50,000 acres of land and would engaged 25,000 young men and women onto the farm to cultivate the maize.

“It’s a key risk that the govern­ment and our partners are taking, and so we are making efforts to see if we can ensure the processes so that when we lose, the insur­ance is able to take care of it,” he stressed.

He added that project would be upscaled next year to roll out large-scale crop insurance for this particular programme so that they would be secured.

Again, Dr Otokunor said under the “Dubidi Initiative,” he be­lieved that every single Ghanaian, young or old, deserved the right to cultivate the soil to produce crops to feed their people.

The director noted that the government would provide in­put support to farmers including seeds, fertiliser, certified seeds and other farm machinery.

“This initiative is there to sup­port you now, but we cannot do it alone as a government, hence, the need for private partnership,” he stated.

He said the initiative would go a long way to enhance the farmers’ productivity for them to grow more and earn more to take care of their families.

Moreover, Dr Otokunor stated that his outfit together with the partners would provide the technical support to the farmers for them practice good agricultur­al practices in order to help them increase their productivity on the farms.

The leader of the farmers, Mallam Abu Zeidu Abudu Has­san, thanked the government for introducing such initiative.

He said the initiative would go a long way to ease their situation and urged them not to politicise it.

The leader also told them to sustain it to benefit every farmer in Northern Ghana and beyond.

 FROM YAHAYA NUHU NA­DAA, NASIA

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