About 2,000 farmers in the Busa Community, a suburb of the Wa Municipality in the Upper West Region have received more than 100,000 cashew seedlings for cultivation under the World Bank’s Ghana Protective Safety Net Project.

The beneficiaries constituted 1,500 males and 500 females who received 40 seedlings each to enable them to cultivate viable cashew seedlings for high yield.

Handing over the seedlings to the farmers at Busa over the weekend, the Municipal Chief Executive, Alhaji Tahiru Issahaku Moomin said the World Bank project was in line with the government’s effort at promoting the production of cash crops for sale and for export.

He indicated that the government’s vision for planting for food and jobs as well as planting for export initiatives was to make agriculture a lucrative business where farmers would recoup enough profit for meaningful livelihoods.

Alhaji Moomin expressed confidence that the implementation of the project would contribute to poverty reduction as well as promote dry season farming, enhance climate resilience, and strengthen the socio economic life of the less privileged in rural communities within the Municipality.

“This project will also enable more youth to venture into agriculture and serve as permanent jobs for them. This will minimise migration of the youth in this area to the Southern parts of the country,” he expressed.

The MCE explained that the 100,000 cashew seedlings were raised and nursed by some 110 farmers in the community and were paid allowances for the service they rendered.

He appealed to farmers to adopt good farming practices by following the instructions of the Agricultural Extension Officers to ensure good returns from their vocation.

The Zonal Coordinator for the Project, Mrs Cydonia Dare,stated that the project was not focused on the cultivation of cashew alone, saying it would also see the construction of 13 feeder roads and 21 small earth dams for some communities in the municipality.

She said the Wa Zonal Coordinating Office was assisting 14 zones within the 11 Municipal and District Assemblies across the region to implement 60 sub projects through the Labour Intensive Public Works component.

She explained that 14 out of 25 climate change sites under the project had produced 1,172,240,000 cashew seedlings for the region, adding that not less than 100,000 farmers would benefit from the cashew seedlings distribution.

She stressed that extension officers were ready to support farmers in the Municipality to meet their production targets with training and guidance, and encouraged farmers to fall on the officers for assistance.

The chief of the community, Naa Ali Seidu Pelpuo Yelmaana lauded the project and commended the World Bank and government for the intervention.