AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) Ghana has launched its agro business programme dubbed ‘Obuasi Goes Agro (OGA)’ at Adaase, a farming community in Obuasi.
The OGA programme is in line with the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme, which aims to promote food security and the immediate availability of selected food crops on the market.
The programme comes as one of the flagship socio-economic development interventions of AngloGold Ashanti under its three-year Social Management Plan towards the socio-economic development of Obuasi communities.
It is also to contribute to the diversifying of the local economy through the design and implementation of innovative interventions, in collaboration with stakeholders.
The Senior Sustainability Manager for AngloGold Ashanti, Mr. Emmanuel Baidoo, in his inaugural address, said, the Mine has committed over GH¢2 million in its current three-year Social Management Plan budgeted for agriculture.
He revealed that the OGA had provided direct employment to, at least, 90 farming households, and has put 170 acres of lands under cultivation, supported by an irrigation system in their host communities.
Mr. Baidoo said the OGA was partnering KB Agricare and Evergreen Ghana Initiative (both Obuasi-based private agro businesses) and the Department of Agriculture of the Obuasi Municipal Assembly to implement the programme.
He added that aside from the OGA, Anglogold Ashanti was working with other partners to develop an oil palm out-grower project to commence next year, and also exploring collaborative opportunities to identify other agro-based initiatives that can help drive the economic diversification agenda for Obuasi.
The Sustainability Manager hinted that the major challenge to their operations was illegal mining, and called on the chiefs to help in the fight against the menace.
Meanwhile, Anglogold Ashanti has donated a brand-new motorbike and desktop computer to the Department of Agriculture of the Obuasi Municipal Assembly to make the OGA programme effective towards promotion of Agriculture in Obuasi.
The post ‘Obuasi Goes Agro’ programme launched appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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