Koforidua, Aug. 17 GNA - The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), has presented two information vans to the Eastern Regional Directorate of the sector, for the education of farmers on new farming techniques.

Receiving the vans on behalf of the directorate, the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, commended MOFA for the initiative, describing it as 93a good step to bring rural farmers to the right track of farming".

He said agriculture, which had been the economic backbone of the country over the years, had not been taken serious, due to a lot of perceptions people have about farming, that it is an occupation for school drop-outs or less privileged in society.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo appealed to the directorate to extend their educational programmes to the Senior High Schools, to educate students on the importance of agriculture and also to erase all negative perceptions about farming.

He said it was unfortunate that when a pupil or student commits an offence in school, the only punishment given was either to weed the school field or to work in the school garden.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said such punishments create an impression in the minds of school children that farming was for wrong doers.

He urged educational institutions to make the study of agriculture interesting, in order to attract more students to offer agricultural related courses.

The Regional Minister said the National Democratic Congress (NDC); government was committed to the development of the agricultural sector to ensure food security throughout the year, hence the introduction of the initiative.

He said one major reason for the continued decline of the inflationary rate was as a result of the stabilization of food prices on the market, which must be sustained, or else it would rise again.

The Eastern Regional Director of MOFA, Mr Godwin Kobla Ocloo, thanked the Ministry for the initiative and assured that, it would go a long way in helping farmers.

He said one major problem facing agricultural activities in the country was the lack of extension agents.

Mr Ocloo said the current ratio of one extension agent taking care of 1,500 farmers was not good for a country that wanted to depend on agriculture as a major economic income, and assured that, the ministry was taking steps to train more agents.