Bolga Poly designs post-harvest loss programme
The Bolgatanga Polytechnic has initiated moves to minimise post-harvest losses and make food available all-year-round in the Upper East Region.
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Post-harvest losses remain a major challenge confronting the agricultural sector in the country due to the absence of viable storage and processing facilities
It is in connection with this, that the polytechnic is designing a programme to address the post-harvest losses in the region.
The Rector of Bolgatanga Polytechnic, Dr Mba Atinga, who disclosed this during an interaction with the Managing Director of Graphic Communications Group Ltd (GCGL), Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, said the institution was sourcing for funds to activate the project.
Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, who was accompanied by the General Manager, Newspapers, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo, and the Zonal Manager for the three northern regions, Madam Memunatu Mahama, was on a working visit to the region.
Dr Atinga said although people were producing large quantities of foodstuff, a lot more were lost because “we do not have the facilities to preserve and store them and it was to address some of these challenges that the polytechnic was designing such a programme to help find solutions to them.
“We are concern about the lives of our people. We want to teach our people how to preserve our crops building on traditional knowledge,” he said. He added that the polytechnic was also looking various ways at promoting local dishes, such as dawadawa, water melon etc which he said were gradually "vanishing" from many homes in Ghana.
Mr Ashigbey lauded the management of B-Poly for the interventions being put in place to deal with post-harvest losses.
He suggested to the polytechnic authorities to partner media institutions to make their research findings available to the public by getting aspects of them published in simple languages to touch and improve the lives of the people and contribute towards the development of the nation.
“We at Graphic are ready to avail our platforms to you and by working closely with our journalists, we can report on some of your research findings conducted periodically by students and lecturers in the various fields to benefit our people,” Mr Ashigbey said.
Story: Benjamin Glover
Writer’s email: [email protected]