ASUTSUARE --A training programme for agricultural school graduates in the cultivation of protea, special flowers with a high market value for export to the European market, is underway at Asutsuare.
The one and a half-year programme, which started with sixteen graduates, falls under the Youth in Agriculture project of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture. It is being jointly undertaken by the Tema Municipal Office of the Department of Food and Agriculture and Pawpaw Farms and Marketing Limited, owned by Mr Solomon Lando, an Israeli farmer, to help the trainees to acquire scientific skills in flower cultivation.
Mr Julius Ametepe, Tema Municipal Director of Agriculture said Plastro Irrigation and Infrastructure Systems, an Israeli company, has donated drip-irrigation equipment valued at 25,000 US dollars to support the programme.
He said the trainees, who have acquired a 10-hectare land at Tema for the project, will be assisted to set up a nursery and link it with a computerised system, which will transfer water automatically to ensure maximum conservation.
Mr Lando, who has personally donated fertilisers and other inputs said protea has been cultivated in Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa and can be successfully grown in Ghana. Protea matures within a year. Pawpaw Farms has tried it on its nursery at Tema and transferred the seedlings to the farm at Asutsuare, where they are doing well.
Mr Lando said in Israel, a hectare of protea fetches about 50,000 US dollars, when well managed. Mr Lando said the company has begun the exportation of passion fruits which it cultivated at the Kpong Irrigation project site near Asutsuare, last year.
He said the passion project is a 150,000-dollar investment, which could yield about 20 tonnes per hectare a year. The company introduced the fruit from Israel and has so far cropped nine hectares from cuttings.
Mr Lando said the company uses the drip irrigation system and noted that weather conditions in Ghana have proved conducive for the crop. He said last year, Pawpaw Farms exported a small quantity to Germany and hopes to increase production this year.
Passion takes six to seven months to grow and fruits twice or three times a year. Mr Lando said the farm has also started trial cultivation of pithaya, a fruit of the cactus family, which has a big market in Europe.
