Defeated Parliamentary aspirant of the opposition National Democratic Congress ( NDC) in Okere, Isaac Larbi is fulfilling promise to make the constituency a commercial natural rubber plantation hub for job creation.
A total of 1,500 natural rubber plants have been planted in the first phase of the project at Asifaw in Awukugua state in Eastern region.
According to Lawyer Larbi, rubber plantation has the capability of providing additional income to farmers in the, create jobs, generate foreign exchange and contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.
The European Rubber Journal, the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG) forecasts that the overall rubber demand will increase by 2.8% in 2023, followed by an average annual 2.4% growth in rubber demand between 2023 and 2031
Lawyer Isaac Larbi who is Chairman of the NDC legal team, however bemoaned that Ghana has not capitalized on the global demand for natural rubber to explore economic benefits therein.
“The rubber plantation is part of the green Okere Project which I promised during my contest in the primaries to implement if I had won the Primaries and ultimately become Member of Parliament. Unfortunately I lost by 80 votes however I decided to go ahead to fulfill this promise to help create jobs, and increase GDP of the country. Rubber farming is a very expensive project and it takes a very committed person to inject such huge amount of money into such a project”.
He added that “the 1500 rubber trees were recently purchased and i immediately got workers unto the land to clear it, after which they did what you call pegging, then after that the holes were dug in readiness for the planting of the rubber trees before the actual planting of the trees. In all of these different stages of the planting, indigenes of Okere were hired to provide labour for the weeding, clearing, preparing, pegging, digging and the actual planting of the rubber trees”.
Lawyer Isaac Larbi believes his “Green Okere Project centers around making Okere the Tree Crop Basket of Ghana which focuses on the establishment of plantation farms for rubber, coconut
Mango, etc on a larger scale so the indigenes can have jobs, reliable source of income, reduce poverty whilst at the same time creating a green forestation for the Okere community”.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Kojo Ansah
