Forest Investment Programme to supply free tree seedlings to tree growers in Ghana

The FIP is being funded by the Climate Investment Fund at the cost of 10 million US dollars under the REDD+ initiative which is being implemented by the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources through the African Development Bank for off- reserve forests in Ghana.

The tree seedlings, which include Wawa (Triplochiton scleroxylan), Mahogany (Khaya senegalensis), Odum (Milicia excels), Ofram (Terminalia superba), and Cassia (Senna sianea) among others, will be made available to tree growers after their farms have been inspected by forestry officials, who will measure the land to determine the number of tree seedlings to supply them and also examine the soils on their farms to determine which kind of seedlings they will best support.

Tree growers will then be given direction on how best to prepare their land for planting after which seedlings would be transported free of charge to their various sites by the FIP.

This was announced at the inauguration of the Nkoranza Tree Growers Association at Nkoranza in the Brong-Ahafo Region on July 1st 2016 under the auspices of the Landscape Restoration Project (LRP) being implemented by Tropenbos International (TBI) Ghana where tree growers expressed concern about how to access tree seedlings for their plantations.

The inauguration was attended by 103 tree growers made up of farmers who grow trees on their farms and smallholder plantation developers from four communities in the Kintampo Forest District; namely, Chiradeaso, Nkwaese, Donkro, Nkwanta, and Asuano.

The tree growers were urged to pick up their application forms from the nearest office of the Forest Commission (FC) and apply to the FIP for seedlings. They were also asked to make good use of the seedlings, which are available to individuals, communities and organisations, by not restricting themselves to tree plantations but also utilising them as boundaries, hedges, windbreaks, firebreaks and for the protection of watersheds among several other uses.

A key issue raised by the tree growers during an open forum was the tendency for buyers to abscond with their produce and money after paying just the initial deposit after an agreement on the price of their trees had been reached.

To this end, one of the functions of the association is to help tree growers enter into written contractual agreements with buyers, spelling out the terms of payments so that they can be apprehended if they breach their contracts, instead of relying on verbal contracts and the goodwill of buyers which are often breached.