Samuel Oduro-Asare, OCP Country Manager
OCP AFRICA, a subsidiary of the OCP Group, a leading global producer of phosphate and its derivatives, with almost 100 years of experience successfully executed the launch of its agro school lab initiative known as the “OCP School Lab (OSL)” at Ejura in the Ashanti Region to support smallholder farmers.
The OSL provides these services to the most remote areas within several campaigns. Each campaign lasts for six to 10 weeks during which the OSL truck travels to a selected region to offer soil testing and training sessions to farmers from the surrounding areas.
Deputy Director of Crops at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Solomon Ansah Gyan, said the Regional and District Departments of Agriculture assist OCP in designing the route map for the school lab campaign and assist with training of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for farmers.
Since the introduction of the OSL in Ghana in 2017, about 45,000 smallholder farmers have benefitted from the programme across the Northern, Upper East, Eastern and Brong Ahafo regions. The focus is on maize, rice, millet, and sorghum.
In the first half of 2019, the campaign has covered the Eastern and
Upper East regions, using two trucks covering 150 communities and reaching about
20,000 farmers.
For the second half of 2019, OCP Africa is raising the campaign a notch higher as the OSL is set to arrive at Ejura in the Ashanti Region with three trucks and is expected to reach an additional 30,000 farmers in 160 communities in both Ashanti and Upper West regions.
Rose Adoma, a farmer, expressed her delight in the introduction and impact of OSL on their farm business. She stated, “Previously, I used to harvest three bags from an acre of land but after the training and soil testing and advice from OSL, I now harvest 13 bags from an acre of land.”
More than 270, 000 farmers have been trained on good agricultural practices in eight African countries, namely Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Togo.
A business desk report