Mr. James Gunu, the Akatsi- North District Chief Executive, has again urged the youth to take to farming as a business.

He said farming was neither degrading nor low paying as perceived.

Mr. Gunu made the call while inspecting a 30-acre farm project the Assembly initiated for farming groups at Ave-Afiadenyigba.

He said a lot of young people were reaping benefits from farming.

“You would realize your negative perceptions are misplaced indeed, when you enter,” the DCE stated.

Under the deal, the Assembly tills the land, provides fertilizer and seeds, while the farmers, with a one-third share of the harvest, tender it (farm).

Crops on the farm include maize and chili-pepper.

Ten farmers each from Zongo, Dzogbekpoe, Asito, Bedzame and Gborhohome are managing the Assembly-initiated community farm.

Mr Gunu stressed “agriculture has gone beyond what perhaps we know it to be, and now becoming a whole business, hugely benefiting people, and the earlier the wrong perceptions are done with, a better."

He said agriculture was the potential backbone of the area and that the Assembly was doing everything to stimulate its commercialization to create jobs and enhance living conditions of residents.

Mr Gunu said there was a possibility for the area becoming market for agricultural produce, attracting patrons from Togo and Benin and beyond.

He said the aim of going into the farm project, was to open up the people to commercial agriculture.

Mr. Gunu said the Assembly members were yet to respond to demands on them to locate lands for the expansion of the scheme to their areas.

He appealed to the Irrigation Development Authority (IDA) to come up quickly on the proposed rehabilitation of the Ave-Afiadenyigba Dam to boost irrigation in the area.

Mr Gunu said the Assembly had added one more tractor to a small-size one donated to it by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The DCE said through the Assembly’s initiative; some private tractor owners were currently tilling farms for farmers at 20 per cent reduced cost.

Mr. Seth Nutor, Deputy District Agriculture Officer, said absence of nitrogenous fertilizer including sulphate of ammonia and urea and rising cost of fertilizers were challenges being faced.

Leaders of the farmer groups lauded the initiative as an eye opener in several ways.

The DCE visited Albert Awuvue, 63, visually impaired man at Seva, a community in the area, whose house was razed to the ground by fire, while he was away with his family, attending his brother’s funeral.

The Assembly, the DCE indicated, had given Mr Awuvue support in kind and cash.