The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) with support from the Kosmos Innovation Center, and Mastercard Foundation has educated tomato and cabbage growers on sustainable and best farm practices to improve production and quality yields.
They also presented organic fertilizers and hybrid seeds to the 55 vegetable farmers of the “Brenyekwa Farmers Association” in the Sunyani West Municipality of the Bono Region.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the sidelines of the day’s training held at Chiraa in the Municipality, Mr Benjamin Sarfo, the Programme’s Officer of the PFAG said the training was in line with a project the Association was undertaken to support the peasant farmers.
He said the PFAG had also procured and would supply the vegetable farmers in the Municipality with 10 spraying and 10 solar pumping machines and soil testing kits to enable them to increase production.
Mr Sarfo urged the farmers to also strengthen their cooperation, saying that would enable them to easily access credit facilities, and a ready market for their produce too.
He said vegetable growing and farming in general remained a lucrative enterprise and urged the farmers to attach seriousness to their farming activities and to enhance their socio-economic livelihoods.
Madam Louisa Asantewaa, an Agric Officer at the Berekum West District Directorate of Agriculture who took the vegetable farmers through the training, cautioned them against the misapplication of agro-chemicals.
She said the Agriculture Extension Agents (AEAs) were there for the farmers and advised them to engage with the AEAs whenever they intended to apply agro-chemicals on their crops.
Mad Asantewaa also entreated the farmers to opt for organic fertilizers, saying application of organic fertilizers enhanced soil fertility and also improved quality yields.
Mr Anthony Marfo, the Secretary of the Brenyekwa Farmers Association expressed appreciation to the organisers, saying the training had broadened their knowledge in vegetable production, pledging to go back and apply the knowledge they had acquired.
Many of the vegetable farmers who spoke said they required credit facilities to engage in commercial production.
According to them, many vegetable farmers were unable to access credit facilities from some of the major banks because they lacked collateral and guarantors and called on the government to come to their aid.
Mr Sampson Amofa, a tomato farmer at Chiraa noted that vegetable farming was capital intensive, from planting and spraying to weeding and harvesting, saying with accessibility of credit facilities, the growers could do more for improved production and quality yields.
Source: Access Agric
