By Emelia Bramaa Addae, GNA
Akim Manso (E/R), July 12, GNA – The Research and Extension Linkages Committee (RELC) of the Department of Agriculture in the Asene Manso Akroso District has held its annual meeting to find solutions to constraints within the agricultural value chain.
The consultative meeting brought together about 60 farmers and Agriculture Extension Officers from communities in the Asene Manso Akroso District of the Eastern Region.
The participants were grouped under various value chains such as farmers in cereals and legumes, root and tuber, tree crops, processing and marketers amongst others.
Mr Alex Incoom, the District Chief Executive and the chairman of the occasion, urged the participants to come out with workable ideas that would lead to success in the various agriculture initiatives of government and help improve the lives of the people.
Mr Daniel Agyei-Dwarko, the Eastern Regional Coordinator of the RELC, said the committee was formed to facilitate the collation of constraints and challenges that confront agriculture development and solutions found would be sent through extension officers to farmers.
Mr Prosper Klu, the Asene Manso Akroso District Director of Agriculture, called for effective stakeholders’ engagement so as to sustain the RELC as a valuable pivot of the agricultural sector, saying “the agriculture value chain refers to a whole range of goods and services necessary for an agricultural produce to move from the farm to the final consumer.”
Mrs Comfort Anim, a member of Ideal Women’s Group in palm oil production at Akim Asuboa, appealed to the Department of Agriculture to lobby for machinery and other logistics for the group to enhance their activities.
Some of the issues that came up during the meeting was the poor road network in the District, which was affecting the transportation and the marketing of farm produce and participants called on the Department of Feeder Roads to rehabilitate the roads for the easy carting of foodstuffs.
The RELC was instituted by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in the year 1994 to serve as an interface between the National Agricultural Research System and the National Agricultural Extension System.
A seven-member Agricultural Value Chain Committee was formed at the end of the meeting to promote effective communication between various actors like the input dealers, processors, fabricators, consumers and officers of the Agriculture Department.
