The Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Sagre Bambangi has paid a working visit to the National Service Scheme (NSS) 250-acre maize farm at Dawhenya in the Greater Accra Region, to inspect the state of the farm after application of chemicals to fight the army worms that attacked the crops.

It could be recalled that the NSS had appealed to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) to, as a matter of urgency, assist to fight the army worms. The Ministry promptly responded and supplied chemicals and technical expertise for the application of the chemicals to combat the army worms.

Dr. Bambangi expressed satisfaction at the result of the application of the chemicals, and commended the NSS for heeding the technical advice given, for which the maize is now doing well. He therefore appealed to all farmers in the country to adhere to the formula provided by technical and extension officers of the MOFA in the fight against the army worms.

The Deputy Minister indicated that even though some remarkable successes have been chalked, the fight against the army worms in the country “is not over until it is over”.

The Acting Executive Director of the NSS, Mr. Ussif Mustapha expressed the appreciation of the Management of the Scheme for the prompt response by the Ministry when he made the appeal to the Ministry to intervene to salvage the maize farm.

He said the NSS has been successful in the fight against the army worms as a result of strict adherence to the technical advice given by officials of the MOFA.

According to Mr. Mustapha, so far all the NSS farms across the country are doing very well, and thus, the Scheme is expecting a bumper harvest at the end of the farming season this year. He commended the Minister of Food and Agriculture and his deputy for their keen interests shown in the NSS agriculture projects.

Mr. Mustapha said the Scheme had committed itself to the President’s initiative of the “Planting for Food and Jobs Policy” by deploying 2,160 national service personnel to the offices of the MOFA in all Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies to assist in the implementation of the policy.

He therefore appealed to the assemblies, farmers, and community or opinion leaders to assist in providing the necessary support for the national service personnel to quickly settle and perform the various tasks assigned to them to ensure to success of the programme.