By Dennis Bebane.
Members of the 7th Joint Steering Committee of the European Union, Ghana Agriculture Programme (EU-GAP) have toured the Upper West Region to assess interventions being rolled out under three components of the programme. Some of the areas visited include Jirapa Municipal Assembly, where Resilience Against Climate Change (REACH) launched an Electronic-Library portal for the Assembly and development partners to store their data.
Speaking at the Launch, the Jirapa Municipal Coordinating Director, Abdulai Karim commended the EU-GAP team leaders and their partners for the project. He was optimistic that the portal will help the Assembly to store relevant information that can be easily accessed at any time across the globe.
“The era of missing documents will be a thing of the past.”
The 7th Joint Steering Committee Members also paid a visit to the Antika Company Limited at Wa to inspect the State- of-the-art Seed Processing and Rice Mill.
The Rice Mill which is the first of its kind in the Upper West region was purchased through MOAP-North West 50/50 matching grants facility.
The Managing Director of the Company, Alhaji Abdulai Antika said all due processes have been followed with regard to certification and waiting for approval from Ghana Standards Authority and the Food and Drugs Authority to kick start operation by December this year. He said farmers in the region will no longer have difficulty in selling their produce. Alhaji Antika was however worried that farmers may not be able to meet the demands of the factory. He appealed to the EU Delegation to continue to support the company in the area of irrigation for it to provide further services to the farmers to produce more raw materials for the Mill.
Head of Cooperation European Union Delegation to Ghana,Massimo Mina commended Antika Company for its commitment towards the EU-GAP and GIZ-MOAP projects implementation.
“First of all, we want to commend the commitment of Antika Company for your role, because you are the biggest responsibility for the success of the programme. We will continue to stand by you because you are a model to other businesses in the region. You have also shown uniqueness by introducing the seed traceability code system to help farmers to track the certification of the seed at the local level and also want to extend it to the national level. That is a great idea”, Mr Mina said.
The EU Delegation and the Joint Steering Committee Members also inspected the Neem Seed Processing Facility at the GIZ-MOAP Office. An Expert for input and Crop Protection at GIZ-MOAP, Aman Emile explained the brain behind the establishment of the Plant.
“There is an increased use of synthetic chemicals in agriculture, and those synthetic chemicals cannot be used without side effects, they are dangerous. If you look around the world, most of the developed countries are banning those synthetic pesticides. And we (GIZ-MOAP) are promoting sustainable agriculture and we are asking farmers to resort to sustainable agriculture. You cannot ask them to practice sustainable agriculture, if you don’t give them what it takes to do it.”
”GIZ-MOAP has realised that there is the need to develop sustainable and environmentally friendly agro pesticides for farmers and that was when the idea came. So we looked around to see which pesticide we can produce with raw materials within the environment and the Neem Tree was the answer. The Neem Tree produces the seed and it contains an effective ingredient known as Azadirachtin with other hundred active ingredients attached to it. It is biodegradable and safe for farmers, consumers and the environment. Moreover, we are also providing jobs for the people during the dry season because that’s the period we collect the seed and besides they don’t have major farming activities”, Mr Emile explained.
The Technical Advisor at the Programme Coordinating Unit, Joseph Apeeliga was happy with the level of performance by the partners. The Joint Steering Committee Members meet twice a year to deliberate on issues of concern and assess the performance of various projects being implemented by partners. The members also receive reports from partners and based on that, come out with various interventions to support them. The Programme was attended by Dr. Andrew Harberd Team Leader for EU/BMZ Co-funded Market Oriented Agriculture Programme (MOAP), Team Leader for ComCashew and REACH, Madam Rita Weidinger among others.
