Sixty agricultural graduates on Friday completed a three-month practical training on the use of greenhouse technology for farming, under the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) Programme.

Comprising two groups, made up of 30 students each, they were trained at special centres built in Akomadan and Bawjiase greenhouse villages in the Ashanti and Central regions respectively.

The Greenhouse Practical Agricultural Course is a collaboration between the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and AGRITOP Ghana Limited, an Israeli company and operators of the greenhouse villages in the country.

Started more than three years ago at Dawhenya greenhouse village in Greater Accra, the course aims to equip beneficiaries with hands-on techniques on how to use agro-technology for sustainable farming.

The latest batch of beneficiaries, who started the course on May 18, constitute the second and third cohorts of the Bawjiase and Akomadan training centres respectively.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony at Bawjiase which was joined virtually by the Akomadan cohort, the sector minister, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto tasked the trainees to form groups and present their business proposals for consideration and receipt of machinery, inputs and other technical support from the government and its stakeholders.

Additionally, he said, about 70 of them would be selected to undergo an 11-month paid internship programme in Israel under an arrangement between the governments of Ghana and Israel.

According to Dr Akoto, the second batch of 70 graduates, undergoing the internship in Israel, were expected to be back in November this year for the next batch of the same number to go.

He said all these measures were part of the government’s larger plan to train entrepreneurs in agriculture, especially the high-value end of production; mainly fruits and vegetables, to support the development of the sector and the transformation of the economy.

“Once you have acquired the basic training, we want to help you establish your own enterprises. We are not training you to go and sell your skills to companies or third parties. We want you to benefit directly and whatever it takes to help, this government will stand by you,” he said.

The Greenhouse idea, Dr Akoto said, was aimed at nurturing the vegetable sub-sector of the country to satisfy local demand and make vegetables a major export earner of the country in the half-decade or more thus advising the graduates to help realise this vision.

For his part, Mr Ofer Tamir, the General Manager of AGRITOP Limited said the trainees had been well-equipped to succeed in the sector and stated the company’s commitment to the partnership.

The Minister and officials from the ministry and other stakeholder institutions were conducted around the greenhouse village as part of the visit.