Ashanti regional Secretariat of the National Service Scheme, NSS, has projected to export maize to Ghana’s neigbouring countries this year, aside from producing enough to help the School Feeding and Free Senior High School programmes with subsidized produce.
To this end, the NSS is increasing its maize production from the 450 acres last year to 850 this year under the Planting for Food and Jobs initiative.
The Ashanti Regional Director of the NSS, Alex Opoku Mensah, who made this known to Radio Ghana in Kumasi, disclosed also that, one of the strategies towards realization of the projection will be the adoption of drones in the application of agro-chemicals and fertilizer to reduce direct human intervention.
In 2018, the Executive Director for the NSS, Mustapha Yussif, told reporters when he visited the farms and the warehouses where the harvested produce are stored that produce from the Secretariat’s farms, will be used to support the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, (MoFA) to implement the Planting for Food and Jobs program, and the Ministry of Education, (MoE) for the Free Senior High School(Free SHS) policy.
He said the produce are given to the Buffer Stock at subsidized prices which are supplied to Senior High Schools in the country to feed the students.
He indicated that harvested maize from the NSS farms have been well-packaged and can be exported to neighboring countries.
