MTN Ghana, as part of celebrating the International Day for Rural Women, has organised free training for about 75 female farmers from Pantang, Dodowa and Akuse communities.
Economic Empowerment Adviser of MTN Ghana Foundation, Cynthia Daiki Mills, stated that the objective of the training is to equip the women with modern technology and skills that could be incorporated into the local farming for healthy foods and increased productivity.
“The training is to let our women in farming see, at first hand, some of the available and affordable technology so that it will encourage them to continue to farm and cultivate high yields. It is also to motivate the younger generation to also go into farming,” she said.
She added that the organisers will put into thought future plans to financially support the smallholder farmers to get access to the modern farming technologies while she commended the women farmers for their hard work in producing food and feeding the growing population of the country.
Speaking to the resource person and an Agronomist at Holland Greentech Ghana, Prince Joseph Amoah Agyapong, he stated that small-scale farming is increasingly becoming one of the major sources of income for women farmers, especially in the rural communities, and it is essential they are trained on the right farming methods, fertilisers and technology to improve yields and maximise profit.
“I think we are gradually doing away with the old system of farming and with a long-term achievement. We would be able to come up with sustainable agricultural methods and technology that would be accessible not just to the elite, but also those in the rural communities,” he said.
Chief Operations Officer of Defarmercist Group Limited, Alex Afari, stated that the training is to introduce the green house technology to open field farmers by training and educating the women with the appropriate knowledge on crop nutrition, fertilisation, pest controlling, and crop protection techniques to improve production.
“Majority of our farmers do not apply the adequate fertilisers that are supposed to be supplied to the plants, leading to lesser yields as compared to other countries in the sub-region. But if we improve on fertilisation and crop protection, we will be able to bridge the gap in terms of the yields.
“At the end of the day, about 80 percent of the foods we consume in Ghana are produced by the smallholder farmers. So if we are able to target and give them this technology, we will be able to achieve production excellence,” he said.
Speaking to some of the women who participated in the training, they expressed their profound gratitude to MTN Ghana for bringing such an opportunity to the female farmers in the rural communities, and also requested for more of such programmes.
