The minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Hon. Samuel A. Jinapor, is imploring Ghanaians and residents in Ghana who would join government and his Ministry in the tree planting exercise today-Friday, June 9th, 2023- to not only pick the seedlings but also do well to plant and nurture it to maturity.
The planting exercise, the minister said, would commence with the President’s commemorative planting at the University of Ghana Legon after which some other dignitaries would plant concurrently in various regions across the country. “Otumfuo will be planting, Yaa Naa will be planting, the National Chief Imam, the Chief of Staff and other key stakeholders like the Ambassadors in Ghana will also be planting,” he added.
The minister also revealed that Parliament has suspended its session on the Green Ghana Day to allow all parliamentarians lead their constituents to plant.
The minister in an interview on, on JoyFm’s morning show, “Super Morning Show” yesterday, said nurturing the trees to maturity was as important as planting hence the reason for downsizing this year’s Green Ghana target to 10million seedlings.
The minister further announced that distribution of seedlings has started and encouraged all to visit the various pick up points in the country to pick their seedlings. He named some of the pickup points as Forestry Commission Head Office, Regional and Districts offices of the Forest Services Division, the Ministry and the malls.
Hon. Jinapor also named the tree seedlings available for pick up, outlining them as, fruit trees such as, Mango, Guava, Coconut and some ornamental plants with timber species and oil palm as well.
He applauded Ghanaians for the support so far and also appreciated the efforts of the Green Ghana Planning Committee as well as all other partners and stakeholders for making government’s aggressive afforestation and re-afforestation agenda a success.
Answering a question on the survival rate of seedlings, the Lands Minister said about 80% of seedlings planted in 2021 have survived while 70% survived in 2022 and that he said is quite appreciable but was quick to add that there’s more room for improvement.