Norwegian-funded training equips officers, farmers to improve tomato yield

A total of 10,000 metric tonnes of tomatoes is expected to be produced by February 2025 to address the yearly incidence of fluctuating prices of tomatoes across the country.

The Project Coordinator, the West Africa Food System Resilience Programme (FSRP), Osei Owusu Agyeman, said in partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), the intervention sought to holistically tackle the high cost of tomatoes.

That, he said, would be done through the FSRP project tailored towards addressing food insecurity and also building the needed systems to ensure an increase in tomato production and other farm produce.

“As part of the programme, beneficiary farmers in tomato producing sites, drawn from 16 districts in four regions, namely Upper East, Bono, Bono East and Ashanti regions, would be supported to go into tomato cultivation,” he added.

Field session

Mr Agyeman was speaking during an on-field exercise to train some technical officers from some Municipal and District Assemblies (MDAs) at the Tono Irrigation Scheme at Gaani in the Kassena Nankana Municipality in the Upper East Region last Wednesday. 

The participants were taken through a five-hour training session on tomato production comprising germination tests, carbonated rice husk preparation for biochar, soil media sterilisation, and ground nursery establishment, among others.

FSRP is being carried out under a $2,274,300 Norwegian grant being managed by the World Bank (WB) and targeted at revamping the Ghanaian tomato industry for dry season production.

He indicated that with the right seeds and best agronomy practices, by February 2025, when there would be a scarcity of tomatoes, large tonnes of tomatoes could be harvested to deal with the annual ritual of the high price of tomatoes.

Sustainability

Touching on the sustainability of the project, he said the programme was anchored on three themes with sustainability being one of them, saying: “We think that although the project would end, we believe that it would be continued”.

“That is why we are working with MoFA and the various district assemblies in the beneficiary regions so that they would ensure that it is sustained leading to the production of tomato all year round,” he stated.

Further, Mr Agyeman mentioned that some processors had been identified who would be assisted in processing the raw tomato into cans for sale both locally and internationally, adding “While traders sell the tomato fruit, others will be supported to process it for sale”.

Latest technology

The Deputy Director, Directorate of Crop Services, MoFA, Dr Harry Bleppony, said the training was to introduce the officials to the latest technology in tomato production so that they transfer the knowledge to the ordinary farmers.

On the availability of water systems to support the production, he said areas with dams and other water sources were strategically selected for the programme, saying “For instance, he said the Tono Irrigation Dam is contributing 290 hectares out of a total of 500 hectares to be cultivated under the project”.

A local farmer, Francis Ageya, in an interview, commended the government for taking the step and sourcing the funding to support farmers to grow more tomatoes to meet the demand of the market.

That notwithstanding, he appealed for the improvement of the road network in the area to enable farmers to easily transport their produce to nearby market centres for sale.

Writer’s email; gilbert.agbey@graphic.com.gh.