Chief Executive for the Sagnerigu Municipal Assembly in the Northern Region, Ahmed Mohammed Yakubu, has bemoaned the lack of land for large scale agricultural plantations in the municipality.
The situation, according to him, is due to rapid urbanisation which had caught up with most parts of the municipality which used to be reserved for farming activities.
He, however, called on the residents in the municipality to join the campaign to plant cashew seedlings in their homes so as to enable the Assembly realise its vision of meeting its cashew production targets through the involvement of households.
“When every household is able to plant a cashew seedling, it would enhance cashew productions as well serve as revenue for the beneficiaries while generating several hundred thousand tons of cashew,” he said.
Mr. Yakubu said this at a one-day sensitisation capacity enhancement programme organised by the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) in Tamale.
The Sagnarigu Municipality has a population of about 341,711 people. The municipality is quite agrarian with about 60 percent of the people who are into agriculture and other related activities. If every household is able to plant a seedling of Cashew, imagine the amount of cashew to be produced in the near future, he said.
Notwithstanding the insufficient availability of land for agricultural activities, Mr. Yakubu said, the few potentials available would be utilised in order to bring economic development to the municipality.
“If you go round the municipality, most of the farmers are into soya bean, rice, Shea, bee rearing, among other productions, but educating these farmers to cultivate the habit of adding cashew productions would help achieve set goals,” he said.
He noted that those farmers and the local industry players would also be encouraged to register with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to enhance their capacity to produce to meet the required standards.
The municipality, according to him, has many agricultural and local productivities of which effort is being made by management to boost economic activities for the youth with the Assembly to generate revenue to improve on infrastructure development.
Touching on the road networks coupled with the market and storage facilities, he noted that the roads were being constructed while effort are being made for storage facilities for the farmers, adding that, there is market for the produce from the farms.
He urged the local industry players within the municipality to get their activities registered in order to benefit from government policies and programmes to grow their business to compliment government agenda of boosting the economy to curb the unemployment rates.
