An agricultural award winner, Ms Evelyn Andoh, 63, from Wassa Akutuase in the Wassa East of the Western Region, has encouraged women living in the urban centres to engage in farming at home, saying, “there is gold in the soil”.
She argued that through pragmatic policies, Ghana could become a food basket, self-sufficient and even export some overseas.
“We need to take to farming as a business and make it competitive, innovative and also increase our production. Indeed, farming is good and we can produce more food, reduce hunger and even export some to Ukraine, which is under severe stress of war,” Madam Andoh stressed.
She gave the admonition in an interview with the Ghanaian Times recently after she emerged winner of the Gold on the Soil Award and the 4th Women in Food and Agricultural Leadership Training Forum (WOFAGRIC) held in Takoradi in the Western Region, in June.
For her prize, Ms Andoh received a tricycle, three knapsack sprayers, 20 boxes of fertiliser, six wellington boots, lamps, maize packs, weedicide, a plaque and a certificate.
She has 27 acres of cocoa farm, 14 acres of plantain, three acres of cassava, four acres of rice and a poultry farm.
Continuing, Ms Andoh advised the youth, especially young women in the cities, to join forces with her at Akutuase in the Sefwi enclave to promote farming and also earn prospective incomes.
She declared, “I am more than 50 years and still I am comfortable with my life and what I do and I am proud. Indeed, land is available, come let’s work together and feed the next generation, no matter the challenges, we are born leaders and pace setters”.
Already, women were nurturing and caring for the nation, the Gold in soil award winner told the Ghanaian Times.
Ms Andoh produced gari from cassava, palm oil from oil palm trees in farms scattered at Ekutuase and nearby villages, and also received a big boost from agriculture extension officers who taught her new technologies which had enhanced the production of plantain and also reduced pest attacks on her farms.
“Today, together with my husband, we have improved and expanded production, increased yields on our 128 acre farm,” she told the Ghanaian Times.
She said she began farming business in 1978 and had five permanent workers, four helpers and 10 others on her plantation.
Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Nana Akyaa Akosa, told the Ghanaian Times that Evelyn, during the documentary for the awards, demonstrated she deserved the Gold in the Soil award.
FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, TAKORADI
