Akugre Agabire, the 2005 best Agro-farmer in the Bolgatanga Municipality in the Upper East Region has appealed to the Government to encourage the planting of economic trees by providing more inputs at subsidized rates to farmers. He explained that there were many benefits that could be derived from the trees. He said apart from local consumption of its fruits, economic trees such as mangoes, oranges, sheanuts, and "dawada" could be exported to generate foreign exchange. Mr. Agabire who has about 65 mango and orange trees around his home said he had personally benefited a lot from the proceeds of the fruits whenever he harvested. "The economic trees have been supporting me to cater for my children and my family for sometime now," he added. Mr. Agabire said that he would embark on a large-scale commercial farming of such trees if he was given the necessary assistance, and appealed to the Regional Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and NGOs to come to his aid. The 2005 best agro farmer said he also intends going into nursing of tree seedlings to supply to schools and individual organizations for planting. Desertification, he said, was a major problem confronting the country especially, the three northern regions. " When people are supported and encouraged to go into economic tree planting, they would do so, since they know they would benefit more by selling the proceeds and this would also help curb desertification", he said. Source: GNA