OCP Africa, in a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), has increased its efforts to support the agricultural value chain in Ghana.
This agreement seeks to intensify OCP Africa’s flagship agribooster programme that will bring a global offer to farmers with access to the quality of inputs, training and market.
The 2020 Agribooster Campaign which is aligned with the government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) Programme, and jointly implemented between OCP Africa and MoFA, has provided improved fertilisers to support farmers across eight regions of Ghana to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on small-holder farmers.
Over 100,000 farmers who have benefitted from these improved fertilisers in the 2020 agribooster campaign will also receive training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).
Country Manager of OCP Africa in Ghana, Samuel Oduro-Asare, noted that it had become necessary now more than ever to support farmers because they are confronted with an adverse effect of COVID-19 on their farming season.
“COVID-19 has affected many areas of our lives and unfortunately, the agricultural sector has not been exempted. Committed as we are for transformation of food systems in Ghana, it is thus imperative that we support our farmers in these difficult times,” he said.
“Our 2020 Agribooster campaign has officially commenced with the distribution of 21,500 metric tonnes of improved fertilisers to farmers. Our importer partners namely; Africa Fertilizer Company Limited, Garnoma Agrichemicals, Ltd, Intercontinental Group Ltd and Glofert Ltd has distributed the fertilisers to farmer aggregators across eight regions of Ghana,” he added.
According to Mr Oduro, smallholder farmers would also be trained on the proper use of inputs, securing access to finance and market, which will positively impact their productivity and finance to help them over the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
BY TIMES REPORTER
