wfn.org | Ghana: Millions of Trees from Adventist Aid Agency Helps Farmers and

["Beckett, John" <BeckettJ@gc.adventist.org>]

Ecology

ANN Bulletin
Adventist News Network
Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters
January 11, 2000
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Ghana: Millions of Trees from Adventist Aid Agency Helps Farmers and Ecology
Accra, Ghana ... [ANN] 

The planting of millions of trees provided through the Adventist Development
and Relief Agency is helping both farmers and the ecology.

A press report in the Ghanaian Chronicle quotes Dr. J.K. Osei of ADRA Ghana
who says that the agency has assisted 300 farmers to plant three million
trees of Late Valencia Sweet oranges on rough Lemon Stock.

"The project is to encourage the youth that are unemployed to go into
farming, which is the backbone of the country," says Osei. "The project is
to restore part of our lost forest, shelter for our vanishing birds, and
protect some of our water bodies. ADRA Ghana intends to set up a
citrus-processing factory which will take care of the three million orange
trees. This will create jobs for the youth."

ADRA Ghana has spent 4.5 billion cedi (over 1.3 million US$) on
agro-forestry in the country as part of its wide-ranging development
program.

"Under ADRA Ghana's agricultural enhancement program, the operation of 52
community and private forestry nurseries produces more than a million tree
seedlings every year, which contributes to the outplanting of mangoes,
cashews and other foods on 16,555 acres of land," adds Beth Schaefer, News
and Information Officer for ADRA International, based in Silver Spring,
Maryland, USA.  "The initiatives are helping to achieve financial and
operational sustainability of tree planting in Ghana. More than 10 million
trees were planted in the last nine years." [Jonathan Gallagher]
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General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
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Phone: 301-680-6300
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