Hydroponic System Of Greenhouse Farm Opens In Sunyani

What began as a backyard farm about a year ago with a few lettuce plants has now turned into the biggest Hydroponic system of Greenhouse farm, which can be used to grow and harvest vegetables all year-round and also serve a research centre for agricultural purposes.

Located at Alaska City, a suburb of the Bono regional capital, Sunyani, JASEY Farms with five permanent staff is set to run the first ever hydroponic system of Greenhouse farm in Ghana and become a leader in the production of organic vegetables not only in Sunyani but the nation as a whole.

Joseph Wilson Sey, the brain behind this project, is taking advantage of the congenial environment provided by government to venture into vegetable production as his contribution toward ensuring food security in the country as well as improving the health of people by consuming organic foods such as the ones being produced in his farm.

Simply put, hydroponic farming is high-volume food production grown without any dirt or conventional fertilizers involved. It allows growing food anywhere throughout the year, regardless of ground soil conditions, water limitations, and climate.

It offers increased food security, uses less water and plant nutrient inputs than traditional agriculture, allows pesticide-free farming, and makes growing some crops possible when doing so outdoors and/or in native soil is impossible.

JASEY Farms has installed five large Hydroponic systems of Greenhouse farm with each measuring 24 by 11.3 meters. Each of the five farms has the capacity to accommodate 1,260 tomato plants with each plant producing ten to twelve kilograms of the vegetable per season.

The Hydroponic systems were installed by the Global Agricultural Holdings (GAH), the exclusive distributors of EnviroDome Greenhouse Systems.

In an exclusive interview with modernghana.com, the Country Director of GAH, Lord Kuleape said with the installation of the Greenhouse farm, tomatoes and other vegetables could be produced every three months.

“The whole concept of this is for you to be able to grow the whole year. So when people are not able to grow because of the weather, you are able to grow because you control the air, you control the water, you control the soil, etc…and it’s organic”, he said.

According to him, “this technology actually originated from Israel and I think it’s the way forward for farming in developing countries because in the world this is how they farm."

The CEO of JASEY Farms, Joseph Wilson Sey, who is also a mining engineer told our correspondent that he is poised to leave positive footprints in the Ghanaian agricultural landscape.

“My advice to the youth is that farming is a very viable business. We shouldn’t see farming as something for the elderly only because it’s a lucrative business if you do it well it will be beneficial to you the person and also the community so we should take farming as a very serious business and that could transform our economy."

He believes that if most young people go into agriculture, it would lead to the reduction of social vices in the society as they will be channeling their energies into profitable ventures.

Meanwhile, the Sunyani Technical University has indicated that it will be taking advantage of the establishment of the Hydroponic systems of Greenhouse farm in the area to broaden the horizon of its students who pursuing Agricultural related programmes.

The Head of Department of the Agriculture of the university, Kwame Duodu Ansah said the facility would serve as a major research centre for both students and lecturers.