Ho Agric Department urges home gardening and fruit dryers to tackle post-harvest losses

The Ho Municipal Department of Agriculture is implementing initiatives to equip National Service personnel with practical agricultural skills while helping farmers and households minimise post-harvest losses.

Municipal Director of Agriculture, Mr Godwin Kwaku Agbenyega, said the department was promoting the use of technologies such as incubators and fruit dryers, alongside various forms of home gardening, including box, sack and container gardening.

He explained that the interventions were also intended to reduce reliance on pesticides in food production and promote healthier lifestyles, noting that research had established the benefits of gardening to human wellbeing.

Mr Agbenyega made the disclosure in an interview after briefing members of the Ho Municipal Assembly at its 3rd General Assembly Meeting on Thursday, October 29.

He said home gardening would help households cut down on food expenditure by allowing them to grow and harvest vegetables from their backyards rather than purchasing them from the market.

"It will also reduce household food cost because instead of buying, you harvest from your own backyard," he explained.

He added that the programme was providing National Service personnel with practical agricultural experience and technical skills that might not have been covered during their university education.

Touching on the importance of fruit dryers, Mr Agbenyega said the technology could significantly reduce losses, particularly during periods when farmers harvested more produce than the market could absorb.

Using tomatoes as an example, he explained that farmers could wash, slice and dry excess produce before processing it into powder for storage, allowing it to remain usable for more than a year without spoiling.

He said home gardening also guaranteed households access to fresh food, as produce could be harvested and consumed immediately, thereby helping to preserve its quality and extend its shelf life.

Mr Agbenyega acknowledged that although Ho was traditionally recognised as an agricultural area, farming activities were declining as fewer people showed interest in the sector.

To reverse the trend, he said the department was partnering the Songhai Centre in Benin to provide young graduates undertaking National Service with training in organic agriculture.

The training, which runs for between one and three months, covers crop production, livestock rearing and fish farming.

"God has blessed us with rich lands. Anywhere we plant, it grows. Even when we don't plant, you see things growing. We have all-year-round farming advantage unlike places where snow falls," he said.

He expressed optimism that stronger partnerships among agricultural institutions, research organisations such as the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and educational institutions would expose more young people to modern farming technologies.

He said such collaboration would help address challenges in the agricultural sector while supporting the production of safe and healthy food for the country.