‘Introduce technology into agric to boost vegetable production’

A deputy chief of Staff in charge of Operations, Mr Kenneth Wujangi, has called for partnership between the private and the public sectors in the use of modern technology to boost vegetable production.

He said such collaboration would help build the capacity of farmers and convey modern scientific technology to remote areas to boost agricultural production.

“With the threat of changing climate, dwindling water resources, increased pest infestation and chronic malnutrition which threaten to prevent us from achieving our food security goal, it is important that we look to scientific advancement for our answers,” he said.

Forum

Mr Wujangi made the call at a forum organised in Accra under the auspices of the Sustainable Development Alliance (SDA), a non-governmental organisation, for partner organisations in vegetable production.

The forum, which was on the theme: “How can public-private partnerships move vegetable value chain forward in Ghana?”, was meant to discuss the opportunities available when stakeholders collaborate and partner in the sector.

Scientific method

Mr Wujangi observed that the way to boost the vegetable sector was for institutions and stakeholder organisations to disseminate relevant information on best practices to farmers in remote parts of the country.

He said the government had rolled out the green economy initiative and a number of irrigation schemes to ensure that there was robust production of vegetables and other food crops.

Boost vegetable production

For his part, a technical advisor to the United Nations Agency for International Development (USAID), Mr Kwesi Korboe, called on vegetable farmers to move from subsistence to commercial farming to enjoy economic returns.

He said the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) had rolled out agribusiness initiatives to ensure that there was a link between farmers and other businessmen in the export and the import sectors.

According to him, climate change was a major threat to vegetable and food sustainability in the country and thus there was the need for farmers to imbibe environmentally free farming practices and technology to boost production.

“The traceability technology that has been introduced has made it possible for the history of vegetables being exported to be traced to the farms from where they were taken. This initiative will ensure that farmers use the right approaches in vegetable farming,” he said.