2 days ago
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A Total of 45 selected Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs) and District Directors of Agriculture have undergone a two-day workshop on training of trainers on improved post-harvest management practices in Tamale of the Northern Region.
The participants were drawn from the Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) in the Savannah Region aimed to deepen their knowledge and skills in order to reduce post-harvest food loss and management to promote sustainable agriculture practices to boast food security, and enhance resilience for smallholder farmers in the selected districts.
The workshop was organised by Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
The European Union in September 2023 launched a $10 million EU Food Security Response in Northern Ghana Project, in partnership with FAO and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA).
The Emergency and Rehabilitation Officer at FAO Regional Office for Africa, Mr Abeshaw Gebru, addressing the participants stated that the launch of the project was designed to support over 10,000 smallholder farmers affected by the impacts of health-related crises, the conflict in Ukraine, and increasing climate variability in the country.
The Support, he said, was to provide a better food production and build resilient agrifood systems in six food-insecure districts in the Upper East Region (Kassena Nankana West and Bongo districts), Savannah Region (North Gonja, North-East Gonja and Central Gonja districts) and North East Region (Bunkpurugu – Nakpanduri) in Northern part of Ghana.
“The six districts are supported to increase maize, millet, sorghum, soybean, groundnut, vegetables (tomato), poultry, piggery, and animal health support” he stated.
Mr Gebru stated that early this year, maize seeds, sorghum foundation seeds, millet foundation seeds, and NPK and urea fertilizers were distributed to 12,600 smallholder farmers to support the 2024 planting season in various communities across the beneficiaries’ districts in the country.
He said the project was accelerating efforts to mitigate the effects of the dry- spell which occurred between July and August this year.
This, according to him, the project would go a long way to focus on boosting livestock and poultry production, promoting dry-season vegetable cultivation, offering alternative livelihoods to the affected farmers and building resilience against future climate shocks.
He added that since the launch of the project a year ago, they had organised a specialised training Programme for 90 Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs) and District Directors of Agriculture across the beneficiary’s regions to equip them on the improved post-harvest management practices in the country.
Mr Gebru, however, appealed to the participants to take the training serious as they were going to equip members of their respective communities on the knowledge that they had gained in the workshop.
The District Director of Agriculture of the North East Gonja, Madam Noami Zaato, thanked, FAO and IITA for partnering each other to give them such a training.
She said the training would help them to also train members of their communities effectively.
She, therefore, appealed to FAO and IITA to continue with the training to give them more knowledge as climate change was now a disturbing issue to farmers in the northern part of the country.
FROM YAHAYA NUHU NADAA, TAMAL
