Workshops on post harvest losses held in 3 regions
The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has put in place a programme to improve the skills of agriculture extension officers in post-harvest technology. The move has become paramount in view of losses that vegetable farmers in Ghana suffer.
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About 90 agriculture extension officers, made up of 17 females and 73 males, have undergone training in post-harvest handling of vegetables. The training was under the auspices of the World Vegetable Centre and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Regional training workshops took place in the Ashanti, Eastern and Brong Ahafo regions. Topics discussed included biological principles of post-harvest handling, post-harvest loss assessment techniques and post-harvest loss management technologies for vegetable crops. Participants were trained in simple, easy to implement technologies suitable for improving vegetable farming.
Dr Francis Appiah, an expert in post-harvest losses and Head of the Horticulture Department at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), commended MoFA for being at the forefront of vegetable production in Ghana. According to him, post-harvest losses could be traced to a number of factors that took place before harvest.
He said planning activities, planting materials and cultural practices and seeds for planting must be the prime concern of all stakeholders and must also be handled carefully before and after harvesting.
He suggested that farmers and other stakeholders in agriculture be trained to have basic knowledge in vegetable processing technology which they could implement on a small scale for a start.
Facilitators at the regional workshops were made up of regional, municipal and district directors of agriculture and regional engineers of MoFA. They included the Ashanti Regional Director of MoFA, Mr Kwaku Minka Fordjour; the Eastern Regional Director of MoFA, Dr Frederick Gyebi Twum, and the Brong Ahafo Regional Director of MoFA, Dr Cyril T. Quist.
The others were Miss Josephine Amo, the Atwima Nwabiagya District Director of Agriculture; Mr J. Nketia Gyenfie, the New Juaben Municipal Director of Agriculture; Mr Augustine Asiedu Appiah, the Regional Engineer from the Eastern Region; Mr Kofi Boakye Fosuhene, Regional Engineer from the Brong Ahafo Region, and Mr John Denkyira Ofosu, Regional Crops Officer from the Eastern Region.
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According to the regional directors of agriculture, proper handling of vegetables would produce safe and high quality vegetables for consumption, which consequently would go to improve the health and livelihood of Ghanaians.
Participants in the regional workshops were appreciative of the training they had received and promised to ensure that post-harvest losses were significantly reduced and also that vegetables produced were safe and of high quality.