Bok Nam Kim School Opens Door To Gov't

From William Yaw Owusu, Akuse

Friday, 11 August 2006
The 29th graduation ceremony of the Bok Nam Kim Agricultural School and Farm Limited was held here last Friday, with a call on government to make use of the school’s facility to train more people in rice production.

In all, 40 students, all men drawn from the prisons service, some universities, youth training centres and other private farmers underwent a five-week training in modern and scientific methods of rice cultivation.

The school, since its establishment in 1982 by the late Bok Nam Kim, then Executive Chairman of AFKO Group of companies Limited, has trained about 998 Ghanaians (about 100 of whom are women) in rice cultivation and production as well as livestock production.

In his address, Mr. Clement Eledi, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, said the introduction of the NEPAD School Feeding Programme which is making locally produced rice a priority will enable more people to go into rice cultivation.

He noted that even though rice was becoming an important staple cereal with a per capita consumption of around 26 to 30 kilogrammes per annum, the consumption level far outweighed what local farmers were able to produce.

"For the past 10 years (1995 to 2005) milled rice production in the country has averaged 150,000 metric tonnes which gives a self-sufficiency ration of about 35 per cent and the shortfall is supplemented by large imports (350,000 to 400,000 metric tonnes) which negatively affect the trade balance."

To address the problem, the deputy minister said the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy (FASDEP) which is under revision will ensure increased production and productivity of rice based cropping systems.

He also said that the government was vigorously pursuing the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) technology which will ensure the cultivation of about 12,000 hectares of land and bring in about 30,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice within a five-year period.

Mr. Lee Sang-Pal, the South Korean Ambassador to Ghana said the school had become one of the most important symbols of ever-strengthening Ghana-Korea friendship.

He said Korea was ready to support Ghana’s agric sector, adding "with sound agricultural policies geared towards rural development, Ghana will surely be on the path of economic recovery."

Mr. S.C. Choi, Managing Director of AFKO Group of Companies, said govern-ment’s prioritization of agriculture as the backbone of the economy was a step in the right direction.

Mr. J. W. Oteng, an agriculturalist who chaired the function urged government to make use of the school to train more people to help ensure food security.