Over 100,000 farmers benefit from agribooster programme

OCP Africa, in a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), has increased its efforts to support the agricultural value chain in Ghana.

The agreement seeks to intensify OCP Africa’s flagship agribooster programme that will bring a global offer to farmers with access to inputs of good quality, training and market.

The 2020 Agribooster Campaign which is aligned with government’s flagship Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) Programme, and jointly implemented by OCP Africa and MoFA, has provided improved fertilizers to support farmers across eight regions of Ghana to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on small-holder farmers.

Over 100,000 farmers who have benefitted from these improved fertilizers in the 2020 agribooster campaign will also receive training on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).

Country Manager of OCP Africa in Ghana, Samuel Oduro-Asare, noted that it had become necessary more than ever to support farmers because they were confronted with an adverse effect of COVID-19 on their farming season.

"COVID-19 has affected many areas of our lives and unfortunately, the agricultural sector has not been exempted. Committed as we are for transformation of food systems in Ghana, it is thus imperative that we support our farmers in these difficult times” he said.

“This is why OCP Africa, in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) have committed to supplying inputs to farmers through the Agribooster program".

“Our 2020 Agribooster campaign has officially commenced with the distribution of (21,500 metric tons) of improved fertilizers (NPK 11.22.21 + TE) to farmers. Our importer partners namely; Africa Fertilizer Company Limited, Garnoma Agrichemicals, Ltd, Intercontinental Group Ltd and Glofert Ltd has distributed the fertilizers to farmer aggregators across eight regions of Ghana,” he added.

According to Mr. Oduro, smallholder farmers will also be trained on the proper use of inputs, securing access to finance and market, which will positively impact their productivity and finance to help them over the negative effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

OCP Africa is positive that the timely delivery of these products especially in the northern sectors will go a long way to assist farmers who are about to apply the fertilizers to their crops in this COVID-19 period.

The 2019 Agribooster Campaign trained 87 extension officers, 400 lead farmers and 42,605 smallholder farmers on Good Agricultural Practices.

Additionally, 3,700 metric tonnes of NPK fertilizers were supplied to 14,800 smallholder farmers, cultivating a total of 37,000 acres.

Their yields increased from 1.8 metric tonnes per hectare to 2.6 metric tonnes per hectare, representing an increase of 44 percent.