By Hafsa Obeng
Accra, Oct 15, GNA – MTN Ghana Foundation, in Collaboration with Holland Greentech Ghana, has commemorated this year’s International Day of Rural Women with some women farmers in the Greater Accra and Eastern Regions.
The engagement was to congratulate the rural women farmers for their hard work and to introduce to them some new technologies of farming.
Madam Cynthia Daiki Mills, Economic Empowerment Advisor, MTN Ghana Foundation, said a lot of rural women in Ghana were farmers, hence the need to bring them together to see at first hand some available technologies available at affordable prices.
She said the exercise was also to encourage them to continue to farm and produce high yields, and also encourage the younger generation to go into farming.
Madam Mills said the rural women numbering 72 were drawn from the Pantang area, Dodowa and Akuse, saying it was just the first step and that there were plans to scale up the initiative to other parts of the country.
“MTN appreciates these women a lot and will like to encourage them to incorporate new technologies into their farming, that is why we have brought people who are expertise in modern technology when in comes to farming to help them do things the right way to enable us get good food and high yields.”
Mr Prince Agyapong, Holland Greentech Ghana, Agronomist and Lead for Irrigation, said they believed that empowering smallholder farmers was just as important as those who planted on high levels because it was a stepping stone to higher levels.
“As a way of managing the little space that we have, we also deal with small holder farmers. The idea is to get everyone on board because everyone counts and contributes to the value chain, right from production to the consumer, so we want to ensure everybody is contributing their part in sustaining this path.”
“We are glad they are gradually buying into the new idea and modernised way of farming due to the exposure we have given them. Gradually we have to do away with the old system of farming and with a long term goal we would be able to achieve and sustain the new technology.”
Mr Agyapong urged the farmers to always engage in good agronomy practices and invest in storage facilities.
Mr Alex Afari, Defarmarcist Group Limited, said about 80 percent of food consumed in Ghana was produced by the smal holder farmers so targeting and introducing new technologies to them, would help achieve “production excellence” in Ghana.
He said the biggest challenge for farmers were middlemen and said that must be addressed.
“Vegetables have a very big market and so if farmers are closer to the consumer they can make big money, but because they are not, these middlemen take advantage of that. ”
Some of the beneficiaries expressed excitement about the initiative, saying: “We have learnt a lot about how to apply fertilizers in the right proportion, and we are excited because it would change our lives for the better.”
They appealed to MTN to train dealers in fertilizers, so they did not misinform farmers on fertilizer application.
GNA