By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Pusu-Namongo (U/E), July 30, GNA – There are plans for the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organisation (NABOCADO), a faith-based organisation, to establish a Farmer Training School in the Diocese.
The school, dubbed “Institute for Sustainable Farming”, will serve as a training ground for people interested in farming and who have a passion for farm enterprises and businesses to enrich their knowledge with practical skills in the agriculture production value chain.
The school intends, among other things, to empower the people to view farming as a business, create jobs for themselves and others as well as contribute to adapting to climate change impacts and enhance food security, improve livelihoods of rural communities and ensure sustainable farming practices.
Mr Dominic Avea, Director in charge of the Livelihood and Advocacy Directorate of NABOCADO, made these known on the sidelines of a training workshop organised by NABOCADO for selected youth farmers within the Diocese.
The Diocese comprise two regions, thus, Upper East and North East Regions, providing 30 beneficiaries with practical training in pig and catfish farming as part of a project dubbed “Ghana, Germany and Uganda partnership cooperation programme”, being implemented by NABOCADO in collaboration with the Caritas of Uganda and Germany.
The pilot project also comprised exchange learning visits of the beneficiaries to partner organisations and countries to help the youth gain practical knowledge and skills in the agriculture value chain.
Mr Avea explained that the training was a pilot and that the results from it would inform future training and planning.
Speaking at the opening of the five-day training on piggery at Pusu-Namongo in the Talensi District, The Most Reverend Alfred Agyenta, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Navrongo-Bolgatanga, said the project sought to empower young people with practical skills to venture into agriculture activities particularly piggery and catfish farming.
The Bishop said the increasing rate of unemployment was creating frustration among young people and there was a need to complement the government’s efforts to provide alternative employment opportunities for the people.
“The project seeks to address the fundamental problem of unemployment in Ghana but at the same time we are ensuring that the young people live dignified lives and so we appeal to the government and other partners, including the private sector to create more opportunities for young people to empower them economically,” he said.
Dr Joseph Bangu, Director of Good Governance, Justice and Peace, NABOCADO, said the Catholic Church was not only concerned about the spiritual growth of the people but was leveraging opportunities to empower communities socially, economically and politically.
He said over the years the Church, through NABOCADO, had provided education, health, livelihood and peace interventions to many hard-to-reach communities within the Diocese and called for collective efforts to improve the living standards of vulnerable people.
The beneficiaries thanked NABOCADO and its partners for the intervention and noted that it would help them to improve production and pledged to train their colleagues in their communities for the project to achieve maximum impact.
GNA