ANGLOGOLD-Ashanti (Eduapriem mines) has donated farm inputs worth GH¢40,000 to more than 2,700 farmers in eight communities in its operational area in the Western Region.
The gesture formed part of the company’s efforts to introduce the communities to alternative means of livelihood.
The items included 7,500 improved oil palm seedlings, vegetable and maize seedlings, fertilisers, wellington boots, wheat bran, high pressure knapsack spraying machines, weedicides, pesticides, watering cans and a quantity of machetes.
According to the Managing Director of the company, Mr David Kwesi Renner, the company had since its inception in 2004, invested more than $2 million in its alternative livelihood programme called “Hand-in-hand”.
He said many people had benefited directly from the programme and this had positively affected about 500 households in the communities.
The managing director said the focus of the company was to create and share with their host communities to ensure that life was left better than they it was.
Mr Renner said education continued to be the focus of the company.
He said when the project started, the company engaged the expertise of a non-governmental organisation, but “at the moment, we are collaborating with a government agency, that is, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) to ensure that the farmers derived the maximum benefit”.
“So far MoFA has been assisting to improve farming methods and has introduced high yielding maize seeds for about 90 community farmers,” he said.
On the benefits of those interventions, Mr Renner said if the processes were followed with the help of MoFA officials, income to those 90 farmers should rake in about GH¢27,000 into their local economy within a short period.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Tarkwa, Mrs Christina Kobina, urged the farmers who had benefited from the company’s programme to impart the knowledge acquired to other people in the community.
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