The beneficiaries of the Youth in Afforestation Programme say life has become unbearable for them as the government has not paid them for the past 15 months.

Some of them who spoke to Class 9.1 FM's Elisha Adarkwah during the Green Ghana Day in Kumasi said they are not able to make ends meet due to unpaid arrears.

They said they have to walk to work to maintain the trees being planted and pleaded that the government pays them.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Benito Owusu Bio, has said the Ministry is in talks with the Ministry of Finance to pay the arrears owed Plantation Developers and Seedling Contractors.

The seedling contractors provided seedlings to the government in 2021 and 2022 during the nationwide tree-planting exercise.

They have since not been paid and have, however, threatened to take legal action against the government over the unpaid arrears.

Speaking to the media, the Deputy Minister said the contractors have not been paid and for that reason, the government could not buy the seedlings from them.

He said the trees which were planted today were raised by the Forestry Commission because the government did not want to add more debt to the already unpaid arrears, wanting it cleared first.

The Minister said this during the Green Ghana Day in Kumasi today in the Ashanti Region.

Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, as well as the Ashanti Regional Minister, planted trees to commemorate the day.

The region is expected to plant 2.1 million trees out of the 10 million trees targeted to be planted nationwide.

For his part, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, said it has been the vision of the region to bring back the garden city.

Regional Director for the Forestry Commission, Mr Clement Amo Omari, said 76 per cent of the trees planted last year survived.