SIF trains farmers in agribusiness
The Social Investment Fund (SIF) has trained 4,219 farmers throughout the country in agribusiness and entrepreneurship to enable them to organise their activities in a business-like manner.
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The training, offered to farmers in 21 municipalities and districts, is part of preparations to link them and other actors to Integrated Rural Development Project (IRDP)-accredited partner financial institutions (PFIs) in the project areas for credit support.
The SIF is implementing the IRDP with funding from the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) and the government of Ghana.
Briefing the Daily Graphic in an interview, the Executive Director of the SIF, Mr Joseph Acheampong, explained that the training and capacity-building workshops were part of the implementation process of the IRDP, which sought to enhance the capacity of the participants.
He said the workshop, which was attended by farmers, farmer groups and other actors in the agricultural value chain, was undertaken concurrently in all the 21 project participating municipalities and districts.
Topics such as agribusiness management, agricultural value chain analysis, safe use of agro-chemicals, and post-harvest management were discussed during the training.
Mr Acheampong said the Directorate of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES) of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture was engaged as the key consultant for the training and capacity-building workshops.
SIF
Touching on the activities of the SIF, Mr Acheampong said the core business of the SIF focused on five areas — provision of social and economic infrastructure and services, capacity-building and institutional development, project management, micro, small and medium-scale enterprises development and management, as well as consultancy services.
He explained that all of them were geared towards poverty reduction.
“In addition to the core business, last year, as part of a strategy to regenerate itself, the SIF created a new unit known as the Business Development Unit (BDU) to venture into the field of consultancy,” he added.
He said the unit would tap the rich expertise and experience of the SIF staff in varied fields of specialisation to undertake consultancy assignments.
Successes of SIF
He said since its inception, the SIF had provided facilities, including 168 health centres, 106 water facilities, 78 sanitation and environmental facilities, 17 roads and culverts, 24 markets, lorry parks and 13 ICT centres.