ADRA trains community based extension workers

Mampong (Ash), Sept. 27, GNA - Thirty farmers selected from 14 communities in the Ejura-Sekyedumase and Atebubu districts of Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo have undergone a five-day training workshop in agriculture and resource management as community based extension workers at Asante-Mampong.

The workshop was organised by the Adventist Relief Agency (ADRA) and sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The community based extension workers are expected to implement improved agricultural practices they had learnt and then replicate them to their colleague farmers in the communities.

Topics treated at the workshop included behavioural change communication, soil improvement, crop production, monitoring and evaluation and post harvest management, community analysis and evaluation and marketing.

Mr Ernest Adjei Nketia, Field Programme Officer of the ADRA, speaking at the function, said ADRA with support from USAID had under its agriculture and health programmes adopted prudent measures to ensure that it implemented a five-year food security programme.

He said some farmers had also been empowered to practice farming in a sustained manner and to process cashew for sale.

Mr Kofi Okyere Manu, Field Extension Officer of ADRA, announced that the agency in its bid to encourage dry season farming would soon supply pumping machines to farmers at affordable prices.

The machines, he said, will pump water to overhead tanks from which water would flow under gravity into farms and urged farmers to pay back loans they had been given on schedule to enable them benefit from the scheme. 27 Sept. 03