Awutu-Ofaakor (C/R), April 25, GNA - The 1994 Second National Best Farmer, Nai Kwao Otuo V, has charged basic school authorities to initiate special programmes to inculcate farming habit in the children at their formative periods to enable them accept agriculture as a lucrative profession.

He warned that failure to educate the young ones on the need to take agriculture seriously would drastically affect national development in future when the current cream of ageing farmers retire.

Nai Otuo, who is also the Central Regional Chairman of the Ghana National Association of Farmers and Fishermen (GNAFF), regretted that most school leavers from the countryside have relegated agriculture to the background even though their parents are ardent food producers. He was addressing the second speech and prize giving ceremony organized by management of Ebenezer Academy Primary and Junior Secondary Schools at Awutu-Ofaakor in the Central Region on Saturday. Nai Otuo stressed the need for agriculture to be made a special subject, which would be given serious attention in the country's educational institutions, especially at the basic and secondary levels. Mr Oppey Abbey, NPP parliamentary candidate for Awutu/Senya for this year's elections, called on teachers, parents and guardians to instil a sense of competition in their children to enable them study. He said lack of competitive spirit in Ghanaians was a contributory factor to the dwindling trend of education.

Mr Jacob Mensah Gaddah, Managing Director of the school, announced plans to construct a library and computer laboratory estimated at 115 million cedis and appealed to parents, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, as well as well-wishers of the school for support to ensure early take-off of the project. 25 Apr. 04