Deputy Information Minister, James Agyenim-Boateng has dismissed speculations that the price of maize is likely to shoot up due to increasing demand for yellow corn in the country. Speaking at a ceremony by the National Service Secretariat (NSS) to hand over 8,000 bags of maize to the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Mr. Agyenim-Boateng said government had put in place adequate intervention programs to forestall any increase in the prices of maize. The handing over of the 8,000 bags of maize is part of a standing agreement between the NSS and CHASS for the supply of maize grown on the Secretariat’s farms CHASS for onward supply to selected senior high schools in the country. The 8,000 bags each weighing 50 kilos were sold to CHASS at a discounted price of GH¢35 per bag. The National President of CHASS, Samuel Ofori-Adjei who received the maize on behalf of the group called for a lasting collaboration between the NSS and the Agricultural science departments of the various schools to allow agric science students to visit the Secretariat’s project sites for practical work. This he said would boost the interest of the students to work in the agriculture sector since they would have had the needed hands-on training to work in that sector of the economy. He also expressed CHASS’ appreciation to the NSS for selling the bags of maize to them at the discounted price of GH¢35 per bag. He however called for the provision of temporal storage facilities for the schools which would purchase the maize since most of them did not have conducive storage facilities to store them. The Executive Director of the NSS, Vincent Senam Kuagbenu on his part, lauded the efforts of the coordinators of the Youth in Agriculture program without whose efforts he said the NSS could not have succeeded in engaging the youth in agriculture. He urged National Service personnel in the country to wholeheartedly serve in whichever area they are posted to bearing in mind that various opportunities are available to them and that they will be contributing to the nation’s development. Central Regional Minister, Ama Benyiwa-Doe and the Municipal Chief Executive of the Effutu Municipality, Nii Ephraim who were also present at the presentation ceremony, commended the collaboration between the two bodies and called on both agencies and government to do all they can to maintain the project. They also encouraged the youth to get actively involved in farming to make unemployment and poverty a thing of the past. The National Service Scheme (NSS) acquired a 510 acre land from the Effutu Municipal Assembly in the Central region for farming to shore up the parcels of land they have alreadt acquired for their farms in the Upper East, Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, Eastern and Greater Accra regions.