WFP launches BRIDGE programme for 8 agricultural colleges
The World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a ‘Building Resilience Impact and Development through Graduate Empowerment’ (BRIDGE) programme, to support eight agricultural colleges to increase the employability of their products.
Advertisement
Under the BRIDGE programme, WFP will provide each of the colleges with $100,000 worth of post-harvest equipment, to enhance the capacity of their students.
The beneficiary colleges are the Kwadaso, Damongo, Ejura, and Ohawu colleges of agriculture.
The rest are the Dabokpa Technical Institute, Adidome Farm Institute, Wa Technical Institute and Bolgatanga Technical Institute.
The WFP Ghana Coordinator of Sustainable Food Systems, Steven Odarteifio, disclosed this at the graduation ceremony of 166 young graduate beneficiaries of a six-week post-harvest mechanisation training at the Ohawu Agricultural College in the Ketu North Municipality last week Friday.
Tackling post harvest losses
The training will enable the beneficiaries who included 128 males and 38 females to operate heavy post-harvest farm equipment and repair them.
A beneficiary of the training operating a heavy-duty farm machine
Mr Odarteifio said the BRIDGE programme would be implemented jointly with Mastercard Foundation and the National Service Authority, adding it would be extended over the next five years.
Mr Odarteifio said it was heartwarming to see women taking part in the training with great zeal, adding that projected bright prospects for the agricultural sector.
The Director of Administration of the Chamber of Agribusiness, Sitsofe Nutsukpui, said post-harvest losses remained a critical challenge for farmers and the economy.
“By equipping the training beneficiaries with the necessary skills in mechanisation, we are addressing a fundamental issue that affects food security and livelihoods in Ghana,” he added.
NSA collaboration
The Volta Regional Director of the National Service Authority (NSA), Ambrose Entsiwah Jnr, gave an assurance that the authority would continue to mobilise young graduates for viable national development programmes, including efforts to reduce post-harvest losses.
He said reducing post-harvest losses on the farms would definitely save the nation colossal sums.
The young graduates who were from various parts of the country were taken through operation and maintenance of key-post harvest handling equipment, operation of tractors and mechanised support systems, safety and hazard management in mechanised agricultural operations, post-harvest handling of cereal crops and other areas.
A spokesman for the trainees, Nii Adjei Boye Yakubu, said they were eager to put to practice their newly-acquired skills.