British NGO assists Bawku West onion farmers

Teshie (Upper East) 31 March '99

Teshie (Upper East) 31 March '99 Action Aid Ghana, a British Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) operating in the Bawku West district, is training 230 onion farmers to construct improved structures for storing onions. Mr Charles Owusu, the programme manager, who took newsmen round the Training centre said farmers were being taught the new technology because they were virtually throwing away their produce. "A basin of onions at harvesting season sold around 30,000 cedis, while the same quantity would sell between 70,000 cedis after the harvest season", he explained. Action Aid therefore sought the support of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Manga Agricultural Research Institute to construct a simple and cost-effective storage system for the farmers. The structure that could easily be constructed with local materials cost a minimum of 40,000 cedis to preserve onions for longer periods. Some of the farmers who were busily constructing their own structures, expressed gratitude to Action Aid for coming to their assistance, saying they would now increase their production since storage is no longer going to be a problem.