Over 100 vegetable and plant farmers have benefited from a day’s training programme on pest and disease control in plants in Accra.
The seminar was organised by the Agriculture Extension Division of British-based company Dizengoff Ghana Limited (DWA) to upgrade the knowledge of the farmers on the various diseases and pests that their plants are exposed to, and to counsel them on how to cure or control them from spreading.
It also served as a platform for the farmers to share ideas relating to their profession and get first-hand information on the various agric-related products and services offered by DWA.
The participants were drawn from the Greater Accra, Central and Volta Regions.
“The idea is to collaborate and impart knowledge to the farmer, be it big or small. We believe that sharing of knowledge is vital to pushing Ghana’s agricultural sector forward,” the Commercial Manager of DWA’s Agriculture Division, Agronomist Mr Boaz Yagel Ziegelboim, explained after the seminar.
He was optimistic that the farmers would put into use what they learnt to help improve their yields and income.
DWA is an integrated products, projects and services provider to the agriculture, communication and electro-mechanic sectors in West Africa and has been operating in the country since the late 1950s.
Its services and products to the agric sector, like the others, are encompassing and include irrigation accessories, agro-chemicals, fertilisers and mechanised farming equipment.
On the way forward for the country’s agric sector, Mr Ziegelboim said the authorities needed to put more emphasis on irrigation due to the unreliability of the rain and its impact on agricultural output.
He said Ghana also needed to modernise her agric sector, explaining that such was significantly key to successful farming.
“This is exactly what DWA aims to do. We want to share our experience and knowledge with Ghanaian farmers and business owners in the sector,” Mr Ziegelboim said.
Some of the farmers requested that the seminar be replicated in other regions to enable their colleagues to benefit, to which Mr Ziegelboim agreed.
He, however, advised that those interested should approach the DWA management for it to be arranged.
As part of the DWA’S rules, Mr Ziegelboim said every agronomist was supposed to organise about two to three field seminars in a month for farmers and that has been going on for years.
“We are now hoping that seminars like this will help augment those seminars and we will do our best to let more farmers benefit,” he said.
The General Manager of DWA’s Agriculture Division, Mr Yoav Hochberg, and the company’s Chief Agronomist, Mr L.O. Opare, thanked the farmers for coming and challenged them to put into use the knowledge gained.
Story: Maxwell Adombila Akalaare
Newer news items:
Older news items: