Samuel Oduro-Asare, OCP Country Manager
OCP AFRICA, a subsidiary of the OCP Group, a
leading global producer of phosphate and its derivatives, with almost 100 years
of experience successfully executed the launch of its agro school lab
initiative known as the “OCP School Lab (OSL)” at Ejura in the Ashanti Region
to support smallholder farmers.
The OSL provides
these services to the most remote areas
within several campaigns. Each campaign lasts for six to 10 weeks during which the
OSL truck travels to a selected region to offer soil testing and training sessions to farmers from the surrounding
areas.
Deputy Director of Crops at the Ministry of
Food and Agriculture, Dr. Solomon Ansah Gyan, said the Regional and District
Departments of Agriculture assist OCP in designing the route map for the school
lab campaign and assist with training of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for
farmers.
Since the
introduction of the OSL in Ghana in 2017, about 45,000 smallholder farmers have benefitted from the programme
across the Northern, Upper East, Eastern and Brong Ahafo regions. The focus is
on maize, rice, millet, and sorghum.
In the first half of 2019, the campaign has covered the Eastern and
Upper East regions, using two trucks covering 150 communities and reaching about
20,000 farmers.
For the second
half of 2019, OCP Africa is raising the campaign a notch higher as the OSL is
set to arrive at Ejura in the Ashanti Region with three trucks and is expected
to reach an additional 30,000 farmers in 160 communities in both Ashanti and Upper
West regions.
Rose Adoma, a farmer, expressed her delight in
the introduction and impact of OSL on their farm business. She stated, “Previously,
I used to harvest three bags from an acre of land but after the training and
soil testing and advice from OSL, I now harvest 13 bags from an acre of land.”
More than 270, 000 farmers have been trained on good agricultural practices in eight African countries, namely Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Togo.
A business desk report
