The Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Sagre Bambangi, on Thursday paid a visit to the National Service Scheme’s Dahwenya Farm in the Greater Accra Region.
The visit was to afford the Deputy Minister the opportunity to acquaint himself with the nature of the infestation of the Fall Army Worm(FAW) and to also monitor the progress of work as far as the fight against the spread was concerned.
The Fall Armyworms have destroyed farms at certain parts of the country, particularly the Ashanti, Greater Accra, Brong Ahafo and the Eastern Regions, causing destructions to crops especially Maize and Cocoa.
The Deputy Minister, in an interaction with the media, expressed his excitement on the progress of the Scheme's farm and called on all farmers to go strictly by the directions of the Ministry in combating the Armyworms infestation just like the NSS.
He added that, government was very much concerned about the outbreak since it has the tendency to derail efforts at revamping the agric sector and has made available the chemicals, personnel and education to combat it.
The Ag. Executive Director of the Scheme, Mustapha Ussif thanked the Minister for the support the Ministry has provided to the Scheme which includes seedlings, technical support and chemicals to ensure a bumper harvest is achieved.
He reemphasized the Scheme's effort to support the President's "Planting For Food Policy" by deploying over 2,100 service personnel's to the program.
The Ag. Director of Crops at the Ministry, Mr. Seth Osei-Akoto rebutted the claims that, detergents such as Omo, “Alata” among others could be used to fight Armyworms invasion on farms and called on the to only go by the education from the Ministry.
