Chief Executive Officer for Cripton Ghana Limited Neil Armstrong Mortagbe has said that it is high time the Volta Region is properly promoted to expose the economic resources it is endowed with. Mr. Mortagbe who is a native from the Avatime area observed that, the Volta Region has been left out when it comes to promoting its economic benefits, which he said could contribute greatly towards promoting good living standards. Neil Armstrong Mortagbe who is also a sports administrator and consultant, was speaking in Accra on Sunday at the second launch of the 2011 annual Rice (Amu) Festival dubbed “Amedzofe 2011” for the chiefs and people of the Avatime Traditional Area. The Amu Festival is celebrated in the first week of November each year by the chiefs and people from the Avatime Area in the Ho Municipality mainly to highlight the economic value of the cultivation of brown rice and its nutritional content. The first launch was performed by Paramount Chief the Avatime Area Osie Adja Tepkor in July this year at Amedzofe, to formally announce preparations for the festival. The second launch is however intended towards getting the youth involved in the celebrations. This has been necessitated by the fact that many youth from the area migrate to the big towns and cities to find non-existent jobs, when they could be better off if they were involved in the cultivation of brown rice which had a ready market. The Chief of Dzokpe, one of the clans of the Area, Okusie Kpornuglo urged the youth to take rice farming beyond family levels and see the celebration of the Amu Festival as an opportunity to grow rice in commercial quantity. This year’s festival is scheduled to take place from 7th-13th November. The Avatime area which has the highest human habitation in Ghana, also bosts of attractive tourist attractions such as monkey sanctuary, water fall, caves, a serene weather, as well as Ghana’s second highest point, the Gemi mountain.