About 1,000 rice farmers in the Asante-Akim South Municipality are to benefit from a joint project by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Food and Agriculture Ministry (MOFA), launched to boost the production and raise the quality of the widely consumed staple food.

They would be taught a new but simple and effective technology of improving the quality and reduce waste, to increase income levels.

Dr. David Anambam, the Municipal Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), said the beneficiaries would be selected from six communities in the municipality.

He announced this at a day’s training workshop held under the project for 50 selected Agricultural Extension Agents at Juaso.

Topics treated included extension methods, land development, farm management and support systems, seed selection, monitoring and evaluation tools.

Dr Anambam said the growing of the cereal grain “comes only after cocoa” in the area and that was what made the project vital.

It could significantly help to improve the livelihoods of the farmers.

He reminded the extension agents of their critical role for the success of the project and asked that they transferred the knowledge acquired from the training to the farmers.

Mr. Samuel Kofi Tekpor, Schedule Officer of the Project, said 35 districts and municipalities across Ashanti and the Northern Regions would benefit from the project.

It is the phase two of the JICA/MoFA Rice Project.

The phase one, piloted in five Ashanti districts, saw significant increase in both the yield and incomes of beneficiary farmers.

Mr. Tekpor said the beneficiary farmers averagely increased their yield from 1.79 tons per hectare to 4.70 tons per hectare.