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Maize farm
Maize farm

National Service Scheme back into agriculture

Every keen observer of the activities and operations of the National Service Scheme (NSS), especially between the years 2010 and 2013, will remember and agree to the fact that the NSS widely hit the television screens and newsstands with its agriculture projects across the country.

Names of places such as Ejura, Branam, Dawhenya, Komenda and Damango featured prominently in the news about NSS maize production.

In 2010, NSS produced over 6,200 bags of maize from the Ejura farm alone during the major and minor seasons; which were sold to 95 Senior High Schools (SHSs) in the Ashanti Region through the regional branch of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) to feed some 22,133 students in the region.

Subsequently, many Ghanaians who had little or no knowledge at all about the NSS soon became aware of the laurels of the scheme in the field of agriculture.

Sight cannot be lost, however, of the fact that there were many other Ghanaians who questioned the mandate of the scheme and why agriculture suddenly became  prominent to take the centre stage of the activities of the NSS. Some parents also questioned why the scheme had to push their young educated tertiary graduates to work on farms as their national service when they had pursued different courses while on campus. The impression was thus created as though it was disparaging for a university or polytechnic graduate to be posted to the agriculture sector for his or her national service. Was it really a bad idea to introduce the youth into agriculture?

Legal backing

Indeed, these made it necessary for the scheme to intensify its public education, as it appeared that many of the people who raised issues with the decision to go into agriculture did not know that Section 3 (1) (a) of the Ghana National Service Scheme Act, 1980 (Act 426) specifically mentions agriculture as one area to where the country’s young graduates could be posted to do their mandatory national service. There was, therefore, nothing illegal about the scheme taking advantage of the then government’s agriculture policy and dovetailing its agriculture module into the “National Youth in Agriculture Programme”, which gave national service personnel that rare opportunity of getting exposed to that activity which serves as the country’s economic backbone. This is because, studies showed that agriculture was contributing about 30.2 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP); and even now continues to provide employment for about 60 per cent of the population; thus, making agriculture the mainstay of the economy in the fight against poverty, food insecurity and general deprivations.

Within four years of introducing large-scale agriculture into the scheme’s activities, between 3,500 and 4,000 national service personnel were posted to the agriculture and agribusiness module of the NSS to do their national service. Thousands of other national service personnel from other modules were also mobilised periodically to the various farms to assist in fertiliser application, spraying, harvesting, shelling and bagging of maize.

Financial scandal

Unfortunately, however, the positive image of the NSS swiftly went into hibernation, especially when the scheme was hit by some financial scandal in 2014 that dented its hard-won image. With the exception of livestock farms at Papao and Nungua in the Greater Accra Region, many of the farms in the other parts of the country could not be operated during those turbulent periods, and from all indications, the NSS farms were gradually dying off.

The question that many Ghanaians, especially sections of the media, have been asking is whether or not the NSS could bounce back into agriculture. That was a legitimate question, and today, the legitimate answer is here. Yes, the NSS has bounced back into agriculture. Obviously, questions are currently being asked. How is it back? What has changed? Would it be sustainable this time round? The answers to these questions were aptly found in the words of the new acting Executive Director of the Scheme, Mr Ussif Mustapha, during his maiden visits to the farms in the Greater Accra Region. He said, “I am a farmer, and I don’t see the reason we cannot succeed in bringing back our farms to life when I can bring my expertise to bear on our activities here.” He  reiterated this vision at a management meeting which got members of the management pledging their support to ensure the success of the projects.

Subsequently, the enthusiasm shown by the acting executive director and his two deputies in this direction have sent clear signals that the days of NSS vigorous farm work are back on track; and why not? With the introduction of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s “Planting for food and jobs policy”, the NSS has once again taken advantage to ensure that the energies of the country’s educated youth are channelled through agriculture for national development.

Progress

As a commitment to the new agriculture policy, the scheme has already cultivated 600 acres of maize at Ejura in the Ashanti Region, 650 acres of maize at Branam in the Brong Ahafo Region, 250 acres of maize at Dawhenya, 350 acres of maize at Damango, 300 acres of maize at Yagaba in the Northern Region, and 300 acres of maize at Nasia, also in the Northern Region.

In addition to planting for food and jobs, the NSS is also seriously revamping its poultry projects. It has, therefore, taken delivery of a total of 6,600 day-old chicks for the Papao and Nungua NSS poultry farms. These are made up of 3,600 brown layers, 1,000 white layers and 2,000 broilers. Here again, to demonstrate commitment to ensuring the success of the projects, Mr Mustapha and his deputy (Finance and Administration), Miss Gifty Oware-Aboagye, personally were on site to inspect the chicks on arrival.

For now, it could be said that all is set for a smooth take-off of the next round of the scheme’s agricultural programmes across the country. From all indications, Mr Mustapha and his team are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the NSS agricultural projects which took a nose dive a couple of years back are stabilised and running smoothly. What the NSS needs now is public support and encouragement for our national service personnel who would be engaged on these projects to make them successful.

The writer is the Head of Public Relations, Ghana National Service Scheme Headquarters, Accra.
E-mail : [email protected] 

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