New plant to boost food production through waste recycling
A new compost plant to aid the greening of Ghana’s economy by recycling waste and delivering a safe nutrient-rich fertiliser for food production has been inaugurated.
Advertisement
The plant was constructed through a Public-Private Partnership between Jekora Ventures Limited (JVL) and Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) facilitated by International Water Management Institute (IMWI) in collaboration with Training Research and Networking for Development (TREND) with technical support from Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Institute of Industrial Research (CSIR- IIR).
Known as the JVL Fortifer Compost Plant, the fertiliser it produces is expected to help improve soil fertility and crop yield. The plant is also expected to contribute greatly to improve urban sanitation and at the same time boost farm productivity.
The plant will produce high-quality compost in normal humus form as a soil ameliorate, either as normal and pelletised packages.
At the inauguration of the plant at Borteyman, a suburb of Accra, the Managing Director of Jekora Ventures Limited, Ing. Immanuel Nartey-Tokoli, said the new fertiliser –Fortifer – would help improve the yields of common grains such as maize and rice, as well as vegetable crops, including okra, tomatoes, pepper, cabbage and lettuce.
“This unique business model offers a good example of how independent entities coming from different perspectives and sectors but with converging objectives can combine resources to commercialise a research product based on appropriated low-cost technology in a developing economy such as Ghana’s for the benefit of society,” he said.
Anticipated sale price at the Fortifer plant for a 50-kg bag of composts is GH¢25, with likely adjustments, depending on market demand and subsidies. Other packages of 10 kilogram (kg) and 30kg will also be available.
The Director General of IWMI, Mr Jeremy Bird, said “this plant is a key milestone in the long road we have travelled with a pioneering group of public and private sector partners to find a viable business model. Building on our joint achievement, IWMI’s research pays greater attention now to the food and resource links that connect cities with the countryside. In a rapidly urbanising world, this is where we can find novel development solutions that lead to green economies.”
Other Trending Stories
The IWMI scientist leading the work, Ms Josiane Nikiema, said the establishment of the plant showed the bold move to confront with one blow two challenges that Ghana and other African countries face – on the one hand inadequate handling of domestic waste, which threatens human and environmental health and on the other fragile food security, due in large part to low soil fertility.
The process
To produce 500 Metric tonnes of Fortifer each year, the production plant transforms liquid and solid waste into a useful product. At full capacity, the plant absorbs over the year the liquid waste from an equivalent of 65,000 to 100,000 people.
Taking human and other household waste, the plant filters and dries this material on beds of sand. Next, the dried sludge is mixed with organic food waste or sawdust and “co-composted” for three months.
This involves regular heaping and turning of the material as it decomposes. Heat generated in the process kills any pathogens in the waste, giving a product that meets the safety standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for reuse of human excreta.
Managing the compost plant
The Deputy Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovations, Ms Patricia Appiagyei, said the new plant would help reduce the country’s reliance on imported fertiliser and enhance the consumption of organic fertiliser.
She said following the inauguration of the Fortifer plant, JVL will manage the plant, supply organic waste segregated at the source of generation and market the product, while the TMA will supervise JVL operations and ensure a constant supply of faecal sludge to the plant.
The CSIR- IIR will support the Fortifer plant and its staff in operating and maintaining the unit for at least six months and the IWMI will provide technical support for the production and marketing of com-composts and fine tune the business model with JVL.
The IWMI will also support JVL in monitoring plant performance and assessing the impacts that result from the plant and help document and publish lessons from this experience.
“TREND will conduct consultations to identify potential production partners who are willing to take part in a replication initiative. A board of directors will be constituted, which shall assume responsibility for reviewing the strategic plans and supervising the operations and management of the Fortifer production plant,” she said.