FARMERS REJECT SUBSIDIZED FERTILIZERS FOR MANURE

-

 Cocoa farmers are now adopting innovative means of sustaining their businesses in the face of the harsh and unreliable climatic conditions including rainfall. 

One such farmer is the Tano South District Chief Farmer, Charles Gyamfi, who has now switched to the application of organic manure on his 200 acre cocoa farm at Anokyekrom. 

Mr. Gyamfi explained that aside from the failing rainfall pattern in recent years, the high cost of the fertilizer is also encouraging him to stick to the use of poultry manure which he said is relatively cheaper and easily accessible for his farming business. 

The District Chief Farmer disclosed this on his farm during an interaction with members from the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions of the Ghana Agriculture and Rural Development Journalists Association, GARDJA.

 It was part of a field trip organized by GARDJA with the support of Utz for the journalists to familiarize with sustainable cocoa production. Mr. Gyamfi said despite government subsidizing the price of fertilizer, the prevailing price per bag is still not affordable to the average farmer while the cost of transportation, considering the location of most of the farms and the bad nature of the roads, discourages the desired patronage. 'We still need rainfall for the manure to work', Mr. Gyamfi inistsed.

Touching on other aspects of production, the Tano South District Chief Farmer, who is also a civil servant, spoke very well of the newly introduced hand pollination initiative by the Ghana Cocoa Board which involves the manual transfer of pollen grains from desirable cocoa trees to another saying that the technology portends a very positive impact on yield judging from the pods per tree now. 

He therefore urged COCOBOD to engage more hands to undertake the exercise so as to cover more farms towards a substantial increase in national production level. On how to make cocoa production sustainable, Mr. Gyamfi suggested that District Assemblies be made to construct at least one new feeder road that links to major farming area annually, sink more boreholes in farming communities while state policies regarding agriculture should be carefully targeted to benefit the farmers and farming communities to encourage production in the larger interest of the country.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

JUTE FACTORY IS BACK

-
Image
the administrative block under rehabilitation At long last, the much talked about defunct GIHOC Fibre manufacturing Company popularly known as the Jute Factory, is to be back in operations very soon.  Ashanti Today can confirm that work is feverishly ongoing towards the revival of the once golden sacks manufacturing company with the first production expected in the first quarter of next year.  It is a public-private partnership with a wholly Ghanaian company, Jute Mills Ghana Limited being the operator and has already sunk about five million Ghana Cedis to revamp the company.  The Jute Factory is located within the industrial area of Kaase.  It has been on divestiture for about 20 years now with successive governments paying lip-service to revamp it.   The old machinery at main factory to be replaced soon  It is one project that is dear to the Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu, who has used almost every opportunity with bus...
Read more

THE STATE OF KUMASI'S 'INDUSTRIAL AREA

-
The once Industrial enclave of the Ashanti region within the Kumasi metropolis is fast losing its status as the nerve centre of jobs for the people.     This is due to the collapse of most of the companies in quick succession in  the last few years for various reasons. Background Industrialization was a key component of the first wholly indigenous government of Ghana led by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. The Ashanti region was not left out in this drive which was meant to create decent jobs for the residents, particularly the youth.  Asokwa, Ahinsan, Kaase, Atonsu and Kyirapatre were the communities that became what is known as the ‘Industrial Area’ of Ashanti from the early 60s.  The christening of this enclave as the ‘Industrial Area’ was the people’s appreciation of the numerous state and privately owned companies that were sited there.  These communities fall within present day Asokwa Constituency whic...
Read more

KWAMANG SHS NEEDS URGENT HELP

-
Image
New Campus of the Kwamang Presby SHS The Kwamang Presby Senior High/Technical School in the Sekyere Central district of Ashanti needs an urgent external intervention to address some of its pressing basic needs to function very well.  A visit by Ashanti Today to the school’s premises revealed that the school does not have an administrative block to administer affairs of the school for which reason the Headmistress, the Bursar and another staff are sharing one room which has been partitioned, while the Assistant Headmaster, the rest of the Accounts staff among other administrative officers are also working from an improvised classroom. Anybody who visits the Kwamang Presby Senior High Technical school for the first time will unavoidably take it for a basic school.  This is more so when it appears to be perching on the premises of the local Junior High School as its old site.  The school is wallowing in a myriad of challenges that are seriously milit...
Read more