By P.K. Yankey
Kamgbunli (W/R), Nov 04, GNA-The Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), has donated inputs to women vegetable farmers at Kamgbunli in the Ellembelle District to empower and equip them with technical and logistical support to enhance productivity.
The items included two solar pumping machines, five knapsack sprayers,100 organic pesticides and four solar test kits.
The PFAG earlier donated pepper seeds and other agro-chemicals to the farmers.
The donation formed part of activities under the project dubbed, “Enhancing Vegetable Productivity and Market Linkages to improve upon Job Creation and Sustained Incomes for Small Holder Farmers in Ghana”.
Addressing the farmers after the donation, Mr Wepia Awal Adugwula, President of the PFAG, said the vision of the Association was to empower the women vegetable farmers in the country to carry out an all-year-round farming to contribute to Ghana’s efforts to become self-sufficient in vegetable production.
He said the project was being implemented by the PFAG with funding from Kosmos Innovation Centre (KIC) and supported by Mastercard Foundation.
Mr Adugwula explained that the overall goal of the project was to improve the livelihoods of small holder farmers, especially women and youth by increasing vegetable production and market access, creation of new jobs and income opportunities by enhancing the resilience of the vegetable value chain, thereby contributing to food security, poverty reduction and sustainable livelihoods.
“The initiative forms part of measures to stem the importation of tomatoes from Burkina Faso, create jobs for people and complementing government’s efforts to ensure that people were empowered to grow the vegetables and to eat made in Ghana foods,” he added.
Mr Adugwula said the Association bought soil testing kits for the farmers to be able to test the soil to know the suitable one for planting the vegetables.
He said the solar pumping machines would enable an all-year-round farming through irrigation, while the organic pesticides would promote organic vegetable farming.
According to him,” PFAG will assist the farmers to produce in larger quantities to feed the urban population thereby contributing to stabilizing food prices.”
Dr Roger Akanbisik, Programmes Officer at PFAG, said the Association was helping farmers to create employment for themselves and that what the farmers needed most was the bargaining power to sell their farm produce directly to the final consumer to remove the middleman bottlenecks.
Mr Oliver Nyame Cudjoe, an Assistant Director of Agriculture in the Ellembelle District, asked the farmers to form cooperatives in a bid to access loans from banks and get assistance from the government.
He appealed to the farmers to conduct market survey to know which vegetables the market women preferred and in which season so that their farm produce would not go waste.
Madam Marian Kabenla Musah, Secretary to the Tomatoes Farmers Association at Kamgbunli, acknowledged the assistance from PFAG, saying farmers had no idea about chemical use in vegetable farming until the Association came in to train them on the use of natural and organic fertilizers which were not toxic.
She said through the support of PFAG, farmers were now well-to-do and were taking care of their family needs.
Madam Kabenla Musah mentioned the inability to test soil quality as some of the problems bedeviling vegetable farming in the area.
She appealed to the Association and the government to supply the women vegetable farmers with natural and organic fertilizers to boost productivity.
GNA
Edited by Justina Paaga/Lydia Kukua Asamoah