The Parliamentary Candidate of the NPP for Sekyere Afram Plains Constituency, George Akom has tapped into the agriculture potential of the district with high powered delegation of investors from China. This welcome news was a way of having a mutual partnership with the investors to explore the high potential of agriculture in the district to support the value chain of agricultural produce. Sekyere Afram Plains district in the Ashanti region has the largest landmark of arable lands which can cultivate varieties of food crops and other agriculture produce. The district which has about 80 percent of the citizens being farmers depend on manual and individual farming for their livelihood. This type of farming has made some of the farmers losing interest to enage in farming activities due to lack of support for mechanized farming and even access to market for their farm produce.
The high potential of the agriculture in the district has not been fully explored because of lack investors who could set up factories to support the value chain in the agriculture sector in the district. It was in this light that the Parliamentary Candidate who is a native of the district has made conscious effort to solve the problem by bringing international investors with experience and have the needed capacity for agriculture investment to set eco- system of factories that could absorb many of the agriculture produce in the district.
The delegation that visited the district engaged with farmers, agric experts, traditional leaders and all stakeholders to share the concept of the factories with them. During the interaction with stakeholders, the team explained that they were going to set about four factories in the area of rice milling, starch production, poultry feed and furniture making which could cater for many of the farm produce the farmers cultivate in the district. In addition, there would be demonstration farms that would support the transfer of knowledge in technology farming and modern agricultural practices. With the establishment of the factories, about 2000 employees were to be employed to work in those factories. Farmers would was be supported with technical assistance to increase their farm yields that would support the raw materials for the factories. The team took the opportunity to visit the various land sites proposed to be used for the factories which was about 250 acre land.
Mr. George Akom expressed his appreciation to the team for the bold step and risk taken to invest in the district which in the long run would solve many problems that farmers always experience in the district. He commended the Chiefs and all stakeholders for their willingness to support the project. The farmers were very enthused about the project which they described as long awaited dream and breakthrough for farmers in the district.
The team finally assured the citizens that they were ready to work with all stakeholders in the district to achieve the target of high production for export and local consumption.
