Over 2,600 farmers in the Kwahu West Municipality have benefited from the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme, which enabled them to expand their farms.

The farmers benefited from subsidised fertilizers, seeds and planted maize and vegetables.

Disclosing this at the Assembly meeting at Nkawkaw in the Eastern Region, Mr Yaw Owusu-Addo, the Municipal Chief Executive(MCE), said a total of 400 bags of NPK, 200 bags of Urea, 595 sachets of cabbage seeds and 427 bags of certified seed maize were received by the Municipal Agriculture Department and distributed to the farmers.

He said the Assembly would do its best to ensure that the people benefitted from government's flagship programmes to enhance their lots.

The MCE said many of the farmers also signed onto the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) initiative and were into oil palm and cocoa production.

Under the Special Rice Initiative (SRI), Mr Owusu-Addo said the Assembly distributed 96.5 bags of rice seed to registered farmers to be planted on 241 acres of land.

He said the District Agriculture Extension Officers had trained about 300 youth in bee keeping and mushroom production and the use of hermetic storage bags for the storage of grains, cereals and legumes in the Municipality.

Mr Owusu-Addo indicated that other youth in the Municipality were also trained in the use of modern technologies in the application of fertilizers, diseases and pests’ control, planting in roll, planting in time and how to prevent post-harvest loses.

He said the Assembly also procured 225,000 cocoa seedlings out of which 220,704 had already been distributed to farmers, adding that the Assembly had plans of raising 60,000 oil palm seedlings at Jejeti- Asuoso under the programme.

He said PERD programme aimed at encouraging the farmers to cultivate tree crops such as mangoes, coffee, cocoa, oil palm, coconut and cashew as a form of investment and to produce raw materials to spur the establishment of factories in the Municipality.

He said PFJ and PERD initiatives were making significant impacts on the economy as a result of which the country had reduced the importation of some food crops.

Mr Owusu-Addo therefore called on the citizenry to support the government in implementing the various initiatives for accelerated socio-economic development of the country