By Muyid Deen Suleman
Obuasi (Ash), March 03, GNA – AngloGold Ashanti, Obuasi Mine, has launched a community support project to empower local farmers in the Adansi enclave to increase farm productivity and incomes.
The Community Empowerment Farming Support Project, which is part of the Mine’s 10-year development plan, is aimed at contributing to creating sustainable jobs and building a resilient food chain within the Mine’s host communities.
It is being implemented in 20 communities in the Adansi enclave and targeted at 1,000 farmers in various farm practices, at the end of the 10-year implementation period.
The project would help to facilitate the cultivation of at least 200 acres of maize by 100 farming households as well as the cultivation of 25 acres of vegetables for 50 women farmers.
A total of 150 beneficiary farmers at the launch of the project were presented with farm inputs to enhance their capacity in good agronomic practices.
The inputs were made up of spraying machines, pruning machines, planters, Knapsack sprayers, wellington boots, seedlings, agrochemicals, and others, worth GHc 500,000.00.
Mr Emmanuel Baidoo, Senior Manager in charge of Sustainability at AngloGold, in a speech read on his behalf, said in 2019, the company piloted the “Obuasi goes Agro” programme to assist local farmers in various agricultural interventions.
The piloted project guided the company to expand the initiative to 10 years to help diversify the Obuasi local economy through agriculture.
Mr Baidoo explained that more often the Obuasi communities were tagged with mining gold, but it was time to get an alternative in case of any future eventualities.
He said the Mine was partnering with the Municipal Directorate of Agriculture to provide technical support and market linkages to help create and maintain jobs while improving on incomes of farmers within the area.
Mr Baidoo pointed out that the successful implementation of the project would help ensure food security and propel a mindset change from subsistence to commercial farming to improve the local economy.
Mr Raphael Atta-Peprah, Municipal Director of Agriculture, said the intervention by AngloGold would help strengthen the implementation of the various government agricultural interventions in the area.
He said the Department would continue to supervise and monitor the beneficiary farmers to ensure that they adhered to good agronomic practices to ensure the success of the project.
Some of the beneficiaries expressed gratitude to AngloGold for the intervention and said the gesture would help them to increase production and their incomes.
GNA