The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has partnered the Forestry Commission of Ghana to plant trees at Weija waterworks towards protecting the dam against siltation and encroaching.

The tree planting exercises, which was carried out in Winneba is expected to be carried out in Atebubu-Amanten, Pru, Techiman, Nkoranza and Asutuare-Shai Osudoku District.

The exercise was part of activities towards to mark the 2019 edition of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) to be held in the country from September 3 to 6 on the theme: “Grow Digital – Leveraging Digital Transformation to Drive Sustainable Food Systems in Africa”.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Dr. Victor Antwi, the Head of Input Distribution and Agro Dealer Development at AGRA said the Alliance had targeted to plant 100,000 commercial tree seedlings.

He said the tree planting exercise was an initiative to catalyse stakeholders in the agricultural landscape to discuss and commit to programmes, investments and policies to contribute to efforts of mitigating the effect of climate change and strengthen resilience of smallholder farming systems on the continent.

He said the long term plan was to partner the Forestry Commission and other stakeholders to secure funding, through similar partnerships, to plant about 100 million tress in the next three years.

Dr. Antwi said “the AGRF is very important for us because we talk about policies, being mindful of the fact that as we support farmers, there is the issue of climate change”.

He said the planting exercise was relevant because it would help minimise the impact of climate change because farmers in Africa, who usually depended on natural climate pattern primarily suffered its consequences.

He commended the Forestry Commission for the readiness and commitment at which they welcomed the initiative from AGRA, especially moving with them to different areas to plant the trees across the country.

Madam Edith Ansah, the Greater Accra Regional Manager at the Forestry Commission said in an interview that the Commission has targeted to, in a period of three years, plant as many trees as the boarder allowed towards the Eastern Region.

She said, the Commission had in this year alone, planted more than 50 hectares with 1,111 trees on each hectare of land around the Densu basin towards protecting the water basin, which serves as the sole water supplier for the Western of Accra.

She said the tree planting exercise would go a long way to help maintain the volume of the water towards empowering the water basin for a continuous supply.