Ms. Felicia Edem Attipoe, the Tema West Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), says the assembly is taking steps to contribute its quota to the development of the agriculture sector in the country.
Ms. Attipoe delivering a sessional address at a general assembly meeting said TWMA’s focus in respect of agricultural improvement included grains, vegetables and poultry.
She added that some key aggregates, financial institutions, input suppliers and farmers would be engaged to enhance agriculture production in the municipality.
She further said that the aassembly through government’s Planting for Food and Jobs (PJF) Phase Two, would introduce the Ghana Agriculture and Agribusiness Platform (GhAAP) mobile app for digital farmer registration to help address the traditional methods of collecting vital information to improve agriculture support.
She said the second phase of the PFJ, launched this year, is a five-year plan to modernize agriculture and address the challenges observed in phase one with key issues related t
o marketing and sales leading to post harvest losses.
Other challenges she noted included poor quality of seeds and fertilizer, poor delivery in respect of mechanisation and inability to access credit facilities.
The MCE explained that 356 home and farm visits had been done to assist farmers, Farmer Based Organizations, and other clients along the agriculture value chain by providing them with technical knowledge on new technologies as well as advisory services.
She said her outfit had trained 83 individuals in snail and mushroom production while a demonstration site for practical learning centres had been established for interested individuals.
She added that the assembly had collaborated with the fisheries department to undertake monitoring visits to catfish farmers to enable sustainability of catfish farming in the municipality.
Touching on animal rearing, she said routine vaccination programmes and prophylactic treatments were carried out as they were essential for maintaining healthy livestock.
She
said an antemortem and postmortem examination of 1644 cattle, 20 sheep and 165 goats were carried out at the abattoir to ensure healthy and quality meat consumed by the community.
Source: Ghana News Agency