A comprehensive agro-project aimed at producing a variety of organic crops for the international market is expecting to engage about 3,000 small-scale farmers, largely women and the youth in the Brong Ahafo Region.
Crops lined up under the project are essentially non-traditional export ones; they include soya beans, tiger nuts, and ginger. The project is expected to among others produce at least about 100,000 metric tonnes of soya per year for a foreign agro-processing firm. The project is expected to produce about 500,000mt per annum at its peak period.
Briefing the Business & Financial Times, Kofi Vinyo, the facilitator of the project, mentioned Best Point Saving and Loan limited as the financial partner to the initiative who will provide the necessary monetary backbone for the farmers.
He said: “Best Point will not disburse the total loan requirement in fiscal cash to the farmers; it will make 50% of the loan as provision to cater for all the necessary inputs and land preparations and give the rest to the farmers who will be put into groups between 10 and 20 people in cash. We are using the next six months to select prospective farmers and train them in all the relevant agronomic practices and resource management in order to make the project as a success.”
Preparations of a demonstration site to raise seeds for the farmers are underway. A standby team of agronomists who will mentor the daily activities of the farmers is also ready. Plans are ongoing to procure all the requisite machinery including planters and harvesters, Mr. Vinyo who is also the 2016 National Best Maize added.
“We will later rope in other interested financial institutions to help scale up the all-year farming project. A dam will be constructed to facilitate the irrigation scheme.”
