The National Service Scheme (NSS) has contributed to the reduction in government budget by GHc1.3 billion, following deployment of personnel to key sectors of governance.
The Scheme had deployed personnel to seven sectors including Health, Agriculture, Education, Police, as well as the Private and Business Development sectors.
The Executive Director of the NSS, Osei Assibey Antwi, who made these disclosures said about 7,000 personnel were deployed to the Educational sector to support teaching and learning, whilst about 5,000 went to Agriculture, thus helping to reduce government expenditure.
The scheme intends to deploy an estimated 180,000 personnel to institutions this year.The NSS already runs other farm projects at Ejura in Ashanti, Abotiapota in the Volta region, Wenchi and Prenam in the Bono East Region, Tamale and Ankaful among others.
The occasion was when the Minister of Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong, visited and toured the National Service farms at the Sekyere Kumawu Economic enclave last Monday to acquaint himself with the development and operations at the farms.
Mr Osei Assibey Antwi said following the bid of the scheme to venture into full scale mechanised farming and do end-to-end Agriculture from production to processing, in line with its mission of “Deployment for Employment”, it acquired 20,000 acres of arable land for large scale cultivation of soya bean, rice and maize, as well as animal husbandry, aquaculture, poultry and other ancillary infrastructure that will make it a truly integrated farm.
He reiterated the commitment of the Scheme to provide jobs for personnel interested in pursuing agriculture as a venture and disclosed that about 400 service personnel would be deployed to the NSS Kumawu Farm project for general training with funds, to prepare the land to transition them into agriculture to come out as entrepreneurs.
Mr. Assibey Antwi said that the Kumawu Youth Farms, unlike the other farm projects by the NSS, will engage in mixed cropping and animal husbandry and noted that it will not only enhance Ghana’s food security but also create jobs for the teeming youth, as well as support poultry farmers with feed for their birds.
He said the main objective of the project is to produce food to support government agencies in the running of the Buffer Stock and the Ghana School Feeding programme.
The NSS Executive Director, therefore, called for the support of the Ministry of Agriculture to enable the NSS to process soya beans.
Minister Acheampong, who was impressed about the development at the farms after a tour with his team of directors, commended the management of NSS for the huge investment in the Kumawu farm project and urged the managers to maintain the high standards set to ensure sustainable returns.
The minister also inspected the Ware House of the NSS Farm project at Agogo, where farm produce are kept for distribution.
He pledged support for the NSS, which he described as a pacesetter in Agriculture in the country and assured that his Ministry would follow the NSS modules to be able to feed the population and for export.
