TRAQUE extends support to mango farmers in Northern Ghana
The European Union funded Trade Related Assistance and Quality Enabling Programme (TRAQUE) has embarked on an extensive good agricultural practices training for mango farmers in Northern Ghana.
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The farmers were chosen from Salaga, Tamale, Yendi, Walewale, Bimbilla, Navrongo and Damango in the Northern and Upper East Regions.
The Team Leader of TRAQUE, Mrs Mariella Sandini said at one of the training workshops that in order to improve mango quality and expand in the global market for Ghanaian farmers, it was important to abide the best practices and modern trends in farming, hence the need for the training workshops.
It is estimated that Ghana has over 10,000 acres under mango production at present, which can produce 15,000 metric tonnes.
The current average yield in Ghana is estimated at 3.6 metric tonnes per acre, however a lot of these productions for exports are done in southern Ghana.
This is a trend the President of the Savannah Mango Growers Association, Alhaji Mohammed Zakari hopes will reverse soon due to this TRAQUE intervention.
He said, “the good thing about this TRAQUE training workshops are that the previous trainings we have had were only focused on theories. But this one is more practical. If we get this kind of trainings consistently for 2 years, our farmers will be ready to export their mangoes.”
He said majority of the mango farmers in Northern Ghana sell their produce on the local market, adding that, “since we formed this association, only one of the farms has been able to export and this is a worrying trend we want to correct because when you export, it brings more income to the farmer than the local market.”
Improvement in quality
One of the lead trainers, Mr Aoun Bassam George, was optimistic of the impact of the workshops.
He said they would be able to improve on their quality and produce better mangoes as well as be in a position to increase their quantity per acre.
“The mango industry in Ghana has not performed well on the international market in recent times. Though there have been some massive individual investments made in the sector, the statistics are nothing to write home about therefore the need to increase the knowledge of farmers to boost productivity”, he added.
Capacity building
A representative of the Department of Agriculture in Bimbilla, Mr Abdul Rahim Abdallah for his part said a lot of staff at the Agric Department needed capacity building trainings on modern ways of farming so this upgrade of their knowledge would automatically help them educate the farmers in the district.
The farmers were taken through both theory and practical ways of commercial mango production. The theory aspect dealt with traceability and food safety while the field experience dealt with pruning and the correct application of pesticides and fertilizers.
