Accra Nov 1, GNA - Professor Agyemang Badu Akosa, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, has called on Ghanaians to use the celebrations of Farmers Day to plant trees, to support the country's aforestation programme.

He said the population of the Ghanaian adult was 14.5 million and that if each of them planted a tree, in 10 years period the country could replace 145 million trees out of those fell.

Prof. Akosa made the call in Accra on Wednesday, at a symposium on "Sport and the Environment" which was organised by the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) for 12 selected schools, which have formed Olympic Clubs.

He said Ghana had a good rainfall pattern, but due to indiscriminate felling of economic trees, the country's forest was almost depleted. He also advised that Ghanaians should plant shade trees to serve as windbreaks.

The Director-General regretted that most farmers destroyed the vegetation as a result of bushfires set in their farms, adding that farmer-smokers were also contributory factors to the country's deforestation.

He called on school children to inculcate the habit of tree-planting in their school communities and even in their parents' farms.

Prof Akosa advised participants to take active interest in sports so that they would remain healthy at all times.

He stated: "The key to quality health is sport and that it should be an integral part of your lives for ever."

Mr. Kwasi Nyantakyi, President of the Ghana Football Association, who chaired the function called on the participants to work hard to achieve their objectives.