ZOOMLION MAKES PROGRESS IN FARMING IN THE NORTH

The Communications Officer of Zoomlion Ghana Limited responsible for the Northern Sector, has appealed to the government to consider engaging the company in the establishment and management of more state farms to ensure food security for the people of this country.

Francis Atayure Abirigo, said Zoomlion was endowed with the human resource with requisite managerial skills and capacity to ensure that the envisaged national food buffer stock programme becomes a reality.

According to him, the company in the three Northern Regions (Northern, Upper East and Upper West) this year cultivated over 900 acres of land for various crops under its Zoom Farms Project which yielded more than they expected.

In a signed press statement copied to savannahnews in Tamale, Mr. Abirigo said the Northern Region alone cultivated 360 acres of land which was being used for only rice at the Savelugu-Nanton District and Yendi Municipality with Upper West cultivating 298 acres of land in four districts. Out of this, 107 acres have been used for the cultivation of maize, 86 acres for cowpea and 105 acres for soya beans.

He also added that, 145 acres of land was cultivated in the Upper East Region in three districts. Out of this, 75 acres had been used for the cultivation of maize and 70 acres for soya beans which were all at the harvesting stages.

He observed that the Youth in Agriculture Module of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) if integrated with the Zoom Farms’ Project; the nation was by no doubt assured of the buffer harvests it yearned for.

He said over the years, Ghanaians and Africans for that matter have failed woefully in managing state businesses and properties but have also succeeded countlessly in managing private businesses. He said it is against this backdrop that he wishes to call on the managers of the state purse to consider farming as a sure way of bridging the gap between the poor and the rich in the country.

The Zoomlion’s Communications Officer urged the youth of Ghana to take farming as a sustainable employment since it has a higher potential of improving their economic status rather than looking for non-existent white colour jobs.

He said the Zoom Farm Project as envisaged and implemented by the Chief Executive Officer of Zoomlion was aimed at ensuring that the government’s efforts to enhancing food security and bumper harvest for both internal and external use, is achieved. He said the move by the C.E.O. has encouraged most of the company’s staff to start their own farms in their own small way which if emulated by all, food will never be a problem in Ghana anymore.

Mr. Abirigo recounted the successes chalked in the Waste and Sanitation Module of NYEP managed by Zoomlion, Zoil, Domestic Waste Services, Pest Control and Janitorial Services at the Nation’s Stadia and airports among others as the reason why his company should be the one Ghanaians should rely on.

He gave the assurance that the company targets large scale cultivation of land for cropping in 2011 and that is when the company’s story will be better told.