The President's Special Initiative for Youth in Agriculture under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) has taken off in the Dangme West District. The 500 million Ghana Cedi project would benefit about 250 farmers in communities including Shai, Ningo, Prampram and Osudoku. Mr Emmanuel Anyimi Odoi, Dangme West District Chief Executive (DCE), who disclosed this at Dodowa on Monday, said the 250-acre land worth millions of cedis, had been allocated to the Assembly for the Project by the Roman Catholic Mission. He said a Dam, which would be used for Aquaculture and irrigation purposes, had also been given to the Assembly for those who would be interested in fish farming. Mr Odoi stated that about 14,000 fingerlings were placed in the dam last month, and 4,000 fish had already been harvested. He noted that the Project would not only create job opportunities for the Youth, but would also serve as additional revenue for the Assembly to embark on other developmental projects. Nii Quaye Kumah, the District Agricultural Director, said the Project was in response to President Atta Mills' call for a better Ghana and the NYEP. He explained that the Project would include, cultivation of plantain, maize, yam, mango, pineapple, vegetables, fish farming and livestock rearing. Mr Kumah believed that the Project would create job opportunities for the Youth in the district, and also liberate the district from poverty. District Co-ordinating Director, Mr Emmanuel Abuanor Nortey, said the Project would stop the Youth in the district from migrating to the cities to look for non-existing white colour jobs. He advised them to embrace the Project and disabuse their minds about Agriculture as a profession for drop-outs and the poor, but to rather see it as a business. Mr John Kwaku Odei, Chairman of the Dangme West Farmers Association, was grateful to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government for fulfilling part of its campaign promises to the Dangme West District. He also thanked Reverend Father Andrew Campbell for releasing the land and the dam to the Assembly for the commencement of the project. Mr Odei called on the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to provide the farmers with modern farming equipments and other inputs to improve their agricultural productivity. Source: GNA