Samuel Oduro-Asare, MD, OCP Africa
OCP AFRICA, a subsidiary of the OCP Group, a leading global producer of phosphate and its derivatives, with almost 100 years of experience, has re-launched its ‘Agribooster Offer’ at Nasia in the North East Region.
The re-launch aims to empower smallholder farmers to improve their food production skills.
Country Manager of OCP Africa Ghana, Samuel Oduro-Asare, said, “OCP Africa introduced this ‘Agribooster Offer’ to support farmers to have access to training of good agricultural practices, finance, markets and high-quality inputs. This combined offer will enable farmers to move beyond subsistence farming.”
“The projected outcome for the 2019 project is to increase farm yield from 20% to 40% of the 70,000 farmers reached. The project is expected to include 30-40% of women as well as 20-30% of young farmers,” he added.
Director of Crops, Mr. Seth Osei-Akoto, said he was very excited that this OCP Africa programme is aligned with the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme to empower farmers with knowledge and skills to maximize the benefits of the usage of the subsidized planting materials and other inputs.
According to the Director of Crops, like the Agribooster Offer, the PFJ would also improve the marketability of the increased production of food crops by establishing strong linkage between producers, private aggregators, public food programmes and private food and feed enterprises.
He thanked OCP Africa for this unique initiative and encouraged all farmers to embrace this offer and enhance their knowledge and skills to increase their yield, revenue and improve their well-being.
OCP Africa first launched the ‘Agribooster Offer’ in 2018, reaching ten thousand (10,000) maize and rice farmers in Volta, Northern and Upper West regions. A 30-40% yield increase has been achieved for this first edition.
The ‘Agribooster Offer’ is an innovative farmer-centered market development model that brings together different stakeholders of the agriculture value chain to provide the best conditions allowing farmers to increase their yield, incomes and livelihood.
The 2019 edition of Agribooster will be implemented in coordination with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the Upper West, Upper East, North East, Bono East and Bono regions, aiming to reach 70,000 smallholder farmers cultivating maize, rice and soybeans.