Ejura (Ash), April 27, GNA - A capacity-building training workshop to equip smallholder and low-income farmers with the expertise for improved farming practices, has been held at Ejura in the Ejura-Sekyedumase Municipality of the Ashanti Region.
The programme, held under the auspices of the World Food Programme (WFP) under its Purchase for Progress (P4P) Initiative, is part of efforts to address some of the major constraints confronting the farmers.
These include low productivity, post-harvest losses and inadequate market infrastructure.
Ms Pippa Bradford, Country Director of the WFP, in an address read on her behalf noted that low productivity and limited market access restricts smallholder farmers to a little more than subsistence levels of food production, making them one of the most food-insecure livelihood groups in Ghana.
The WFP, she said, had, therefore, stepped up efforts to sharpen the skills of the farmers on technical, business and organisational development to enhance agricultural productivity and marketing.
The Country Director said her outfit buys a lot of food from countries in which the WFP operates as a measure to boost local economies and by extension, the lives of crop farmers who are often food insecure.
Leveraging its purchasing power, the Programme has bought more than 3,000 metric tons of maize worth $1.6 million from assisted smallholder farmers in Ghana since 2011.
Ms Bradford indicted that her organisation had planned more maize purchases for this year and that farmers would also be taught about the dangers of Aflatoxins and how to prevent their maize from being contaminated by this dangerous fungi before harvest or during storage
She challenged the participants to put into practice lessons taught at the workshop to sustain their livelihood.
Topics treated included Importance of Spatial Arrangement, Weed Management in Maize and Legumes Production, Integrated Pest Management in Maize, Rice and Cowpea Production and Safe Use of Pesticides, as well as Group Dynamics and Cohesion.
GNA
'Kill whoever will rig Ejisu by-election' – Independent Candidate supporters inv...
Ashanti Region: ‘Apologize to me for claiming I owe electricity bills else... – ...
Ghana is a mess; citizens will stand for their party even if they’re dying — Kof...
Internet shutdown an abuse of human rights — CSOs to gov't
Free SHS policy: Eating Tom Brown in the morning, afternoon, evening will be a t...
Dumsor: A British energy expert 'lied' Ghanaians, causing us to abandon energy p...
What a speech! — Imani Africa boss reacts to Prof. Opoku Agyemang’s presentation
Dumsor: Tell us the truth — Atik Mohammed to ECG
Dumsor: Don't rush to demand timetable; the problem may be temporary — Atik Moha...
Space X Starlink’s satellite broadband approved in Ghana — NCA
