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WFP purchases $2m worth of cereals

The World Food Programme (WFP) has purchased 5,000 metric tonnes of maize and rice worth over US$2 million from 26 smallholder farmers’ organisations in the Northern and Ashanti regions.

This forms part of the WFP’s project dubbed: “Purchase for Progress” (P4P) initiative that started some five years ago in the country.

The pilot project, which will end this year, is aimed at increasing the income levels and access to healthcare services of smallholder farmers in the country.

P4P

The WFP Representative and Country Director, Ms Mutinta Chimuka, announced this in a speech read on her behalf at a training workshop for P4P smallholder farmer organisations on organisational development, prevention of aflatoxins and conservation agriculture in Tamale in the Northern Region.

More than 50 women smallholder farmers participated in the three-day workshop held at the Forestry Services Division.

Ms Chimuka said since the P4P started, WFP had worked with partners to provide extensive training in technical, business and organisational development to all the 26 participating smallholder farmer organisations that the project adopted for the pilot programme in the two regions.

She said the initiative had also supported the farmers to acquire some equipment such as semi-mechanised parboiling containers, improved energy-saving stoves, grain moisture content meters, rice reapers, threshers, weighing scales and tarpaulins for drying farm produce.

She explained that the farmers had also been taught good agricultural practices through practical sessions on demonstration farms and given relevant advice through well-researched radio programmes.

Workshop

Touching on the workshop, Ms Chimuka said there was the need to educate smallholder farmers on the causes and prevention of aflatoxins.

She explained that aflatoxins were poisonous substances produced by fungi that contaminated food, adding that when aflatoxin foods were consumed over a long period, they could cause life-threatening illness, including cancer and stunted growth in children.

Concerning conservation agriculture, she said it was aimed at achieving sustainable and profitable agriculture through three principles, including minimal soil disturbance, permanent organic soil cover and crop rotations.

Ms Chimuka, therefore, urged the participants to make good use of the workshop.

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