CIKOD awards 21 agro-ecology practitioners in Lawra/Nadom
Lawra, (U/W), Nov. 7, GNA – The Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organizational Development (CIKOD) has awarded 21 agro-ecology practitioners in the Lawra and Nandom Municipalities at the 36th National Farmers’ Day Celebration.
The Farmers’ Day events, which took place at Tuori and Bu communities in the Lawra and Nandom Municipalities respectively saw the agro-ecology farmers comprising communities, vegetable garden farmer groups, and outstanding agro-ecology and Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) practitioners taking home various prizes.
The prizes included certificates of recognition, compost fertilizer, wellington boots, cutlasses, and wheel barrows to aid the farmers to increase productivity next year.
The prizes were also in recognition of their commitment to promoting agro-ecology and protecting the environment.
The gesture was part of the implementation of the project dubbed: “Strengthening Local Markets to Promote Agro-ecology in Ghana to promote “consumer awareness of the benefit of agro-ecology products and opportunities in marketing agro ecology food”.
Mr Daniel Banuoku, a Deputy Director of CIKOD speaking at the Tuori event thanked the farmers for adopting and showing resilience in the practice of agro-ecology which was helping in the realization of the project objective.
Mr Banuoku also disclosed that CIKOD had supported over 360 farmers to produce organic groundnuts, adding that, they were targeting to export 20 tons of groundnuts out of the Upper West Region of which 60 per cent of the production would be coming from the Lawra Municipality.
He noted that as part of the project, they have commenced the construction of a warehouse in Pavu community, saying, when completed it would help them deal with the theme of the 36th National Farmers’ Day Celebration which is “Ensuring Agribusiness Development in COVID-19, Challenges, and Opportunities”.
“We’re putting in a processing facility that will help us process particularly groundnuts into peanut butter that we intend to export”, he said stressing that they were hoping the initiative which was in line with the government “One-District-One-Factory” initiative would go a long way to strengthen farmers capacity to produce and respond to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Deputy Director of CIKOD said the organization was committed to working towards sustainable innovations in the area of agriculture production, processing, and marketing.
“If we facilitate a process where there is fairness across the agribusiness value chain, agribusiness will not only benefit those in business but will also go a long way to help the real farmers on the ground who toil everyday to produce food to feed the nation”, he said.
“If you look at agribusiness in Ghana, our real farmers turn not to benefit directly from their produce. We are, therefore, hoping that with the number of innovations that are going to be put in place, agribusiness can have a direct impact on farmers in terms of economic returns”, he added.
GNA
