Over 4,000 farmers register on Planting for Food and Jobs phase II in Sissala East

A total of 4,077 farmers in the Sissala East Municipality have registered to benefit from phase II of the Planting for Food and Jobs project.Mr Mahama Salifu, the Sissala East Municipal Director of Agriculture told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Tumu that the completed number of registered farmers in the Sissala East was 4,077 with all data fully captured and approved by the system.Farmers with both completed and incomplete stood at 8,720 farmers whilst those farms mapped by the Agriculture Extension Agents stood at 8,647.Mr Salifu said the figure keeps changing by the day and explained that when one is completely registered a PIN code would be sent through SMS.Mr Salifu revealed that Sahel Grains had been selected as the input dealer for the Sissala East and asked the approved farmers to contact Sahel Grains.The government also indicated that the 200,000 farmers that register first will get input grants for some limited acres.Already the first batch of urea input has arrived in Tumu waiting for t he seed and fertilizer, which are needed now.He appealed to those whose farms had not been mapped to quickly do so to benefit from the intervention.He appealed to farmers who do not intend to farm this year to get counted as that will provide the government with credible data to intervene in agricultural activities in the country.'Sissala East is known for their heavy production of cereals, especially maize, so I encourage everyone to show up and get registered', Mr Mahama noted.In the Sissala West District, Mr Richmond Zinbonche, the District Director of Agriculture disclosed that the Ghana Agricultural and Agribusiness Platform (GhAAP) have so far registered about 6,185 farmers with registered farms 4,884.The total completed registered farms and mapped stood at 2,799 whilst the incomplete ones were 3,386.He said some 909 farmers were pending whilst the system rejected about 1,363 farmers.Source: Ghana News Agency