GAWU PRESENTS SPRAYING MACHINES TO FARMERS (PAGE 22, DEC 31)

THE executive of the General Agricultural Workers’ Union (GAWU) in the Ashanti Region have presented a number of spraying machines and pesticides to some farmers in the region.
The gesture was meant to reduce post harvest losses of food crops in the region.
The executives also donated quantities of tarpaulins to the farmers to enable them to dry their cereals and other crops effectively to improve their quality and market value.
About 300 farmers from five communities in the region are to benefit from the gesture and according to the regional officer of the union, “ our main objective is to enhance income generation of the beneficiary farmers to encourage the youth to venture into agriculture, and thereby reduce unemployment among them”.
The beneficiary communities are Kyereyaase, Nerebehi, Foase, Afrancho and Kokoben.
The Regional Officer of GAWU, Mr Clement Alosebuno Kaba, told the Daily Graphic that the union’s collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) made it possible for it to source for the items for the beneficiary farmers.
He said farmers in the region always worried about post harvest losses which undermined their income generation effort and thereby made it impossible for them to expand their farms.
“Our gesture is a project dubbed strategic intervention from the Canadian Empowerment programme to reduce post harvest losses of crops like maize, cowpea, rice, cassava, plantain and yams among others, and thereby enhance income-generation efforts of farmers. It is also to encourage them to expand their farms and ensure adequate food security,”, he stressed.
He said since the project was introduced about a year ago, many farmers had benefited from it and gave the assurance that many more would benefit from the gesture to minimise post harvest losses.
Mr Kaba expressed concern about the farmers not being able to have easy access to agricultural extension officers and that only a “ few extension officers are on the field attending to many farmers, so the officers are not able to reach out to as many farmers as possible and teach them modern techniques of farming to enhance food security “
He appealed to the government to employ graduates from the agricultural colleges and universities for them to fill the gap and offer the requisite technical know-how to farmers for them to adopt modern ways of farming to enhance food security in the country”.
Mrs Beatrice Duku Frimpong Boateng, who received the items on behalf of the beneficiary farmers, commended GAWU and CIDA for their wonderful gesture.
“ With the items, we would be able to combat pests effectively and use the tarpaulins to dry our crops to improve their quality and thereby enhance their market values”.
She gave the assurance that the items would be maintained to encourage the donors to support them in other areas.