The Agona East District Assembly has decided to sponsor the training of midwives at Nurses Training Colleges in a bid to get adequate midwives to cater for maternal and child health in the District. The District Chief Executive (DCE) Mr John Oremus Arko stated this when he addressed the Assembly's first ordinary meeting of the year at Agona Nsaba. He said the Assembly was determined to ensure that maternal and infant mortality rate are reduced to the barest minimum in the district, and also to create conditions for children to grow in a healthy environment. The DCE appealed to nurses working in the District to improve their relationship with patients to encourage people to attend health facilities when they fall sick. He said complaints from the public concerning poor reception they had been getting from some health service providers in the District did not speak well about them. On agriculture, Mr Arko said the Assembly was working at forging a strong relationship between Agricultural Extension Agents and farmers to improve their farming practices and boost their crop yield. He said the Assembly was collaborating with the Extension Agents to establish nurseries for oil palm for sale to farmers at reduced prices. The DCE said the Youth In Agriculture Programme in the District was on course and appealed to land owners to release more lands on reasonable terms to the Assembly to enable more youth to be enrolled on the programme. He said the Block Farming Concept was also being pursued in earnest and planting had already been done in some of the communities. Mr Arko said the Assembly had so far spent GH¢4,000 on bursary for students in the second cycle and tertiary institutions. He said the Assembly had decided to establish an Education Endowment Fund to enable more brilliant but needy students to be catered for and appealed to all citizens to help the Assembly to achieve the objective. The DCE briefed the Assembly on on-going projects and those to be started. The Assembly approved the Supplementary Budget for 2010 for the District. Source: GNA