The Agriculture Department of the New Juaben North Municipal Assembly, has received training on modern ways of cultivating in the agriculture sectors, this initiative has come to been as a result of huge amount of imports.
This is a major concern and it has many unpremeditated effects. Business people who import the food need foreign currency (usually US dollars) to pay their suppliers abroad and this puts pressure on the local cedi leading to volatilities.
Paying for these suppliers abroad means farmers and agro-business people in those foreign suppling countries stay in business and create more jobs.
The local farmers cannot compete and are thrown out of business.
The recent dip in the value of the cedi is perfect example of the negative implications of unbridled import. Hence the need for full implementation of the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) programme.
PERD provides a historical opportunity for addressing the economic fundamentals by expanding the capacity to earn foreign exchange from agricultural exports which generate much-needed jobs.”
With the programme designed to focus on the development of selected export tree crops, such as cashew, coffee, oil palm, coconut, mango and rubber.
PERD presents Ghana with opportunities for diversification and new sources of revenue.
The training was conducted by Technical Education Development for Modernized Agriculture (TEDMAG). These program is a government flagship program to curd the problem of food importation from neighboring countries.
The policy is targeted to raise 4,139 million seedlings, of six selected tree crops in 191 districts. In five years.
the programme is expected to make use of a total land size of 32,591 hectares. As part of the work planned for 2019, technical education development for modernized agriculture in Ghana (TEDMAG) is one of the activities that has to be implemented by the department of Agriculture.
The Municipal Chief Executive of New Juaben North Hon. Comfort Asante expressed her intended support to the Government policy with the ministry target of supporting not less than 5,000 farmers per district to develop a minimum of four hectares during the PERD period.
The MCE said each “of the farmers will be required to establish nurseries at the community level and also establish a minimum of 10,000 community nurseries by the end of PERD programme,” Mad. Comfort Asante said, during the ceremony.
The training took a period of one month (two days in a week) on the topics; The New Extension Agent,
Effective Communication
Extension Teaching Methods for Facilitation
Agricultural Value Chain
Adults as Learners (considering farmers)
Inclusivity in Extension and the Value Chain
Working with and strengthening of FBOs.
The training started on 24th of April in the 3rd week with the “Overview of some of the theory, Principles and Basic Concepts” of the Course Understudy.
The program commenced with “The New Extension Agent”, which looks at the role of extension agents in relation to developing a market-driven system that is focused on the value chain and interacting with its various actors “The New Extension Agent” is an approach and not just personal characteristics.
Story by: Elizabeth Ansaah
(MIO)