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Friday, March 29, 2024

Women train in use of new oven

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Some female fishmongers at Ankobra in the Ellembele District in the Western Region have undergone training in the application and operation of the new improved “AHOTOR” oven for smoking fish.

Over 90 women were trained in the use and operation of the Affordable, Healthy, Original, Timely, Organised and Reliable (AHOTOR) oven system, which is an invention under the USAID-funded Ghana Sustainable Fisheries Management Project (SFMP).

Hitherto, the women were using unrefined means of smoking fish, with their attendant hazardous implications.  
 
The SFMP has several health, environmental and socio-economic benefits for enhanced and sustainable livelihoods in fishing communities.

An implementing partner of the programme is Daasgift Quality Foundation, a non-governmental organisation which supported the organisation of a durbar/demonstration and awareness campaign at Ankobra at the weekend, with the aim of introducing the use of the AHOTOR oven to fishing communities that benefited from the system.

Third durbar

The Ankobra durbar was the third to be organised by the organisation in the region, after a similar one at Axim in the Nzema East Municipality and Shama in the Shama District, where 158 and 85 women were respectively taken through the programme.

The durbar, which had the theme, “Ma AHOTOR Mbra Wo Nam Ho Mu,” (translated to mean Make your fish smoking comfortable), also sought to educate opinion leaders and traditional heads on the need for a change in fish smoking  technology.

Among those who also attended the function were representatives of the Fisheries Commission, the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), Non-formal Education Division of the Ministry of Educaton, Environmental Health and Sanitation, the National Fish Processors and Traders Association  and chief fishermen.

In a welcome address, the Communication Officer of Daasgift Quality Foundation, Sister Hope Asmah, commended USAID for supporting the project which she said was very helpful to female fishmongers in particular and the fisherfolk in general.

She urged the people to embrace the new technology in view of its several health benefits, saying the new technology did not produce a lot of smoke in the process of smoking the fish unlike the Chorkor and the other unfriendly methods which troubled their eyes and nostrils.

The Fisheries Officer from Axim, Mr Samuel Ebo Adjei, noted that with the new technology, the forests would not be depleted and added that people now preferred to eat fish not contaminated with smoke.

An environmental officer, Mr Bright Adu-Anim, stated that the women who inhaled smoke, using unrefined means of smoking fish, stood the risk of contracting diseases in the long term and, therefore, advised the women to go with the new technology.

Benefits

The Western Regional President of the National Fish Processors and Traders Association  (NAFPTA), Mr Thomas Suapim, also appealed to the women to train others with the new skills they had acquired so that they would also improve on their fish smoking venture.

He noted that if they continued to adopt the new technology, their smoked fish could be exported outside Ghana and that would make them realise some more income from their business, saying that those who had not as yet adopted the use of the oven should come on board.

The Chief of Ankobra, Nana Gyekro Nkrumah, who chaired the function, advised the women to pay back whatever financial assistance they would receive from the implementers of the programme to ensure its sustainability.

He noted that in the past they bought firewood at a high cost to smoke their fish and, therefore, ran at a loss, but with the AHOTOR oven they could maximise their incomes.


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