The Coconut Federation of Ghana (COCOFeG), the nation’s largest umbrella body for coconut farmers, has presented 83,000 hybrid coconut seedlings to the Nkoranza South Municipal Directorate of Agriculture.

The directorate would facilitate the onward distribution of the seedlings to 570 farmers in the Municipality of the Bono East Region.

It was in line with the Presidential Initiatives in Agriculture and Agribusiness (PIAA) being implemented by the COCOFeG.

President John Dramani Mahama launched the implementation of the PIAA to scale up the nation’s agribusiness sector, expand the economy and thereby improve the Gross Domestic Products.

The Ghana Exim Bank is supporting the implementation of the PIAA, which sought further to create more job opportunities through nurseries, cultivation, harvesting, vending, processing and export.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of a presentation ceremony at Nkoranza, Mr Joseph Adu-Parko, an Extension Officer at the Nkoranza Municipal Directorate of Agriculture, said 40 percent of the beneficiaries were female farmers.

They were between 20 and 70 years, comprising teachers, health workers, security officers and other government employees engaged in coconut farming.

Mrs Gifty Fremah Appiah, the Nkoranza South Municipal Director of Agriculture, also told the GNA that implementation of the PIAA was laudable to revive the coconut sector for job creation and poverty reduction.

She called on the government to resource the extension officers to enable them to reach out and guide the farmers at the farm gates.

Mrs Appiah said at least every household in the municipality had benefited from the seedlings and appealed for motorbikes for the extension officers to effectively monitor the implementation of the programme.

One of the beneficiaries, Mr Johnson Effah, a coconut farmer at Donkor-Nkwanta, commended the government for the PIAA, saying that the programme would make the coconut sector more attractive for the youth.

Another beneficiary and a farmer at Ekumsa-Odumase, Madam Rose, said the coconut business was lucrative and had huge economic and health benefits, and therefore urged the unemployed youth to leverage the PIAA and engage in commercial coconut plantation.

“Coconut farming is a business with all-year-round benefits,” Mr Yaw Sikayena, a 65-year-old farmer told the GNA, and commended the government for the support.