The Bono East Regional Minister, Kwasi Adu-Gyan, has announced his intention to make the region the rice hub of Ghana.
“We have the potential to do so and we must make the rice sector attractive for smallholder farmers and encourage the National Service Scheme, Nation Builders Corps, and the Youth Employment Agency to invest in the sector”, he stated.
Mr Adu-Gyan made the announcement when he was addressing heads of Departments and Agencies and Municipal/District Chief Executives (M/DCEs) at a Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) meeting at Techiman, the regional capital.
Emphasising his vision for the region, Mr Adu-Gyan tasked the MMDCEs to concentrate on building commercial agriculture and industrialization, human capital development, infrastructure, and tourism.
Mr Adu-Gyan said the region had about 23,564 square kilometres of rich arable land and more than 70 per cent of the people were farmers, saying, it was imperative to modernize agriculture through modern mechanization and technology systems by establishing commercial block farming to make farming attractive for the youth.
He said the region had more than 308 rice valleys covering 32,000 hectares of land that could create direct and indirect jobs for about 3,000 youth.
Mr Adu-Gyan said the RCC, therefore, intended to undertake a rice project that would create 9,030 farms and engage 500 skilled and semi-skilled working force at mechanization centres and create jobs for more than 100,000 people.
The project would produce about 125, 000 tons of rice, and help reduce importation by 10 percent.
Latest Stories
-
‘My heart is for Berekum Chelsea now’ – Samuel Boadu
1 min -
Chair of NDC-USA chapter Maame Aba Dadzie donates to struggling Ohiamadwen D/A Primary School
6 mins -
Train accident: Four accused persons granted GH₵800K bail
15 mins -
Akufo-Addo to order release of KPMG report
19 mins -
GPL: ‘My players had a psychological problem’ – Aboubakar Ouattara on Hearts poor run
22 mins -
Hindsight: Fatawu Issahaku’s positive defiance pays off
23 mins -
Today’s front pages: Thursday, May 4, 2024
26 mins -
Luis Rubiales to stand trial over World Cup kiss
31 mins -
Tuchel says offside decision ‘felt like betrayal’
36 mins -
Ohemaa Nyanin: The American-Ghanaian pushing boundaries in the Women’s NBA
37 mins -
Bawumia promises to build Islamic Colleges of Education
53 mins -
Bawumia’s ‘Ghana beyond cocoa and gold’ policy will stabilise cedi – Ahiagbah
1 hour -
I’ll establish common-user processing facilities in various mining districts – Bawumia
1 hour -
Collective effort needed to win galamsey fight – Bawumia
1 hour -
‘Stinky SML scandal won’t die’ – Manasseh to Akufo-Addo over refusal to release KPMG report
1 hour