34 agro input dealers schooled on salesmanship

Thirty-four agro inputs dealers from six districts in the Northern Region have completed a three-day workshop on Agro inputs Salesmanship in Tamale.

The workshop was organised by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) with facilitation by Tradeline Consult Limited (TLC).

The workshop was aimed at impacting participants with basic skills and knowledge they needed to effectively sell their products to farmers in their localities.

The participants, including two women, Ajaratu Abubakari and Zulaha Alidu, were drawn from communities in Mion, Saboba, Tolon, Chereponi, West Mamprusi and West Gonja Districts.

The participants were identified in conjunction with ATT’s Seed Van Owners/Operators, current Agro-dealer companies working with the Agricultural Technology Transfer (ATT) Project, Seed Producers and agro-chemical sellers in the relevant districts.

Mr Forster Gomashie, the Managing Partner of TLC, decried the low participation of women in the training and indicated that efforts would be made to encourage more of them in future programmes.

Mr Gomashie took the participants through series of demonstrations, energisers and innovative interactive games and reflection sessions aimed at getting the participants to share their experiences in Agro-input sales and how to improve upon their network chains.

Participants were also provided knowledge on various agro-based chemicals on the market as well as their purchasing, handling and storage by Mr Dauda A. Salam, an Associate Consultant for TLC.

He advised participants to purchase agro-chemicals from genuine sources in order to avoid selling counterfeit or illegal chemical products.

The participants also benefited from Record keeping, Networking and Salesmanship Skills, which was delivered by Mr Joshua Diedong, an Associate Consultant with TLC.

He urged them to create a networking team of Dealers, Seed Van Operators and other partners within the Agriculture value chain.

Mr Iddrisu Haruna, a participant from Heritage Seeds Co. Ltd (a Seed Van Operator) said his company was grateful to be part of the workshop.

He said the event had given him the opportunity to network with Agro-chemical dealers, other seed van operators, farmers, project partners and others partners within the agriculture value chain.

Another participant: Yakubu Abdul-Fatau of Sheini Enterprise (Mion District) said his outfit would start keeping records electronically, having benefitted from the TLC-facilitated training programme.

Mr Romanus Gyang, the Programme Co-ordinator, expressed confidence that the training objectives and expectations were met.

Tradeline Consult is a Ghanaian registered Limited Liability Company based in Accra-Ghana and Lilongwe-Malawi offering a variety of business consultancy services and trainings to smallholder farmers, traders, processors, farmer groups, associations, cooperatives and Micro, Small, Medium and Large Enterprises.

The Feed the Future USAID Agriculture Technology Transfer project is financed by the?United States Agency for International Development and implemented by the IFDC. The ATT Project, seeks to ensure increased availability and use of agricultural technologies to maximise and sustain productivity in northern Ghana to achieve increased competitiveness of rice, maize and soy value chains to foster broad-based economic growth.