Women in the OCP Africa agribooster programme have supported about 5,000 women smallholder farmers, according to Country Manager of OCP Africa Ghana, Samuel Oduro.

Oduro made this known during a four-day training for 200 agricultural extension agents and aggregators in Bono East, Upper East, Upper West, North East, Ashanti, Oti, and Eastern Regions of Ghana.

Development Dairies gathered that the training was aimed at building capacities of the agricultural extension agents in line with OCP Africa’s 2020 agribooster campaign.

It was learnt that the training enlightened participants on tools and skills on farmer dynamics, good agricultural practices, farming as a business, post-harvest operations, and marketing of harvested crops among others.

‘Aside the provision of farm inputs in the agribooster programme, we at OCP Africa believe the success of the programme partly depends on building the knowledge base of agricultural extension agents (AEAs), who will transfer the knowledge gained to small-holder farmers’, Country Manager of OCP Africa Ghana, Samuel Oduro, said in a statement.

He said women in the OCP Africa agribooster programme were cultivating maize and rice with 1,250 metric tonnes of improved fertilisers, land preparation services and agricultural transformation equipment, with expected yield of 5,000 metric tons.

For his part, according to the statement, Ashanti Regional Director, MoFA, John Manu, said, ‘The dynamism in the agricultural landscape and the impact of Covid-19 on agriculture makes this training programme very vital for extension agents and farmer aggregators in the country’.

The statement said the 2019 agribooster campaign trained 87 extension officers, 400 lead farmers and 42,605 smallholder farmers on Good Agricultural Practices.

Source: Joy Online

Photo source: Joy Online