Forty-five tractor operators, drawn from all the districts in the Northern Region are undergoing a one-week training course to equip them with the knowledge of proper ploughing and maintenance of tractors, to increase productivity, especially in rice cultivation.

The one-week training programme is sponsored by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).

Mr Seidu Musah, an engineer and senior lecturer at the University College of Winneba, said the new system of ploughing would ensure that land preparation was leveled and good for seed planting, while maximizing water usage and the proper intake of nutrients by the plants.

He said, a Global position system (GPS) had been installed on the tractors, to regulate how many hectares of land had been ploughed at a given time to ensure that, tractor owners and operators do not blame one another on the issue of accountability.

Mr Moses Oladi, Chief Road Transport Officer of MOFA, said government had over the years invested a lot of money to provide agriculture machinery to farmers, which had not yielded the desired returns because tractor operators were not sufficiently trained.

He said most of the tractors broke down within three years because of the lack of maintenance.

Mr Moses Bukari Mabengba, Northern Regional Minister, said the government had subsidized the tractors for farmers and expressed the hope that, they would reciprocate by increasing production.**