NABCO trainee wins Best Agric Extension Agent

Gideon Buemor Apetorgbo, a Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) trainee at the Tema West Municipal Assembly, emerged Best Agriculture Extension Agent at this year’s Farmers’ Day celebration in the Tema West Municipality.

The 32-year-old, from Akplabanya in the Ada East District, graduated from the University of Development Studies (UDS), Tamale in 2013 and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture Technology, Agronomy option.

Mr Apetorgbor is currently a NABCO trainee with the Department of Agriculture and is assigned as an Agric-Extension Agent to the Klagon-East Operational Area, Tema West.

Under the supervision of the Municipal Extension Desk Officer and Municipal Crops Desk Officer, Mr Apetorgbo groomed and supervised Mr Adamu Naaba, a farmer at Klagon who won the 2019 Overall Best Farmer in the Municipality.

He conducted a field demonstration on the proper spacing of onion in 2019 at Klagon and further trained 25 households to go into container gardening, which has been adopted by most households across the Municipality.

He is currently conducting RELC field demonstration on alternative insecticide and recommended good agricultural practices to control the incidents of flea beetle (Podagrica Spp) and whiteflies on okro – a demonstration which has attracted researchers to the Municipality and drawn the attention of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

This was disclosed at this year’s Municipal Farmers’ Day celebration, the third in the Municipality on the national theme, “Ensuring Agribusiness Development under Covid-19; Opportunities and Challenges.”

Mr Alfred Nii Ayi Clottey, Director of Agriculture, Tema West Municipal Assembly, addressing the gallant farmers and fisherfolks, said the day also recognized the important role processors and marketers played in the sector and the socio-economic development of the country.

He said the theme was appropriate as the focus of Agriculture ought not to be viewed as just a practice of cultivating the land for households, but should be seen as a business that responded to the broader socio-economic needs of the country.

He said the Tema West Department of Agriculture in its quest to promote home gardening through Container Farming Technology, was committed to re-designing the concept of Agriculture modernization in the Municipality.

“The promotion of Container Farming for home gardening has been widely embraced by many households as this was made possible through the collaborative support of some stakeholders in the Agricultural value chain, ” he informed.

According to the Director, many households took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to produce vegetables at home and said: “to encourage more households and individuals to go into home gardening, we recommend that an award be instituted for the best home and backyard farmer in subsequent awards.”

Mrs Adwoa Amoako, Municipal Chief Executive, Tema West Municipal Assembly, said under the government’s Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) initiative to promote economic tree planting to address climate change, some 10,000 non-economic tree seedlings were distributed to residents in the various Electoral Areas in the Municipality.

“In 2021, as part of the PERD implementation strategies, we anticipate to distribute over 500 economic tree seedlings to our cherished farmers” she added.