Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa, the Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation
The Executive Director of Agrihouse Foundation, Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa has called for the establishment of agriculture training and demonstration centers across the country to offer practical training on best modern agricultural practices for farmers.
She said the current module of training farmers in hotels instead of offering them practical training was not helping the country in its efforts to boost agriculture production, hence the need for the establishment of agriculture training and demonstration centers to offer such practical training to
farmers.
Alberta Akosa noted that farmers needed more practical training to help them increase productivity and not training in hotels where only theories are taught.
She said: “It’s gotten to a time that Ghana needs an Agribusiness, Agriculture Training, and Demonstration Site permanently, even in all the regions. We can’t keep on doing things in hotels when we’re working with farmers. I mean it’s a nice thing to do but it goes beyond that. Our farmers want practical approaches, so we’re hoping that stakeholders and development partners would invest in modules like this that would train the next generation of our youth who want to venture into Agribusiness.”
She was speaking at the 13th edition of the annual Preharvest Agribusiness Exhibitions and Conference which was held at Kudula, a suburb of the Tamale Metropolis of the Northern Region.
Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa said that farmers would be given practical training during the three-day exhibition and conference.
This she said was a shift from the classroom type of approach, noting that it would help boost productivity.
“There’s the need to strengthen our farmers by building their capacities and we’re shifting from the module of having the classroom type of training to a more practical approach where farmers will embrace the new technologies and new inputs that would enhance productivity for the next season”, Alberta said.
She said her foundation has also secured land through the benevolence of the Banvim Lana, of the Banvim Traditional Area to build an agribusiness, agriculture training, and demonstration center.
The annual event which seeks to build the capacity of farmers on existing and new farming technologies aims at boosting agriculture productivity in the country.
The three-day event which is organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Northern Regional Coordinating Council seeks to bring together people in the agriculture value chain.
The Northern Regional Coordinating Director, Alhaji Alhassan Issahaku who represented the Northern Regional Minister commended Agrihouse for the initiative.
He said the exhibition and conference was an “opportunity for farmers in the region and also for people in the agric value chain to gather here to exhibit technology, to share ideas, to exhibit knowledge and more importantly to establish linkages that we require to promote agriculture development.”
