The Technical Education Development to Modernise Agriculture in Ghana (TEDMAG) Project on Tuesday, 18th August, 2020 started training of Farmer Based Organisations (FBOs) and value chain actors across the country.
The trainings are to take place from the 18th to 24th August in Accra, Kumasi, Sunyani, Wa, Bolgatanga, Ho, Tamale and Cape Coast. The training will focus on building the capacity of FBOs and other actors of the value chain in the area of organisational and value chain development, and how to position themselves to take advantage of the quest to modernise.
At the opening ceremony held at Miklin Hotel, Accra to begin the first phase of the 3-tier training using the Trainer of Trainers (ToT) approach, 160 selected participants from 160 Farmer Based Organisations (FBOs) and value chain actors across the country will be trained in topics such as Value chain and markets, Agricultural Marketing, Skills for managing relationships, Business planning for the FBO, etc.
The Chief Director of Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Mr. Robert Patrick Ankobiah, said that the Ministry has rolled out various government initiatives such as the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ), Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) etc. which are all Government’s programmes to modernise and commercialise the agriculture sector and improve the livelihood of farmers and various actors engaged in agriculture-related activities. He emphasised the importance of employing modern agric practices to ensure increased food production. He also encouraged participants and their organisations to take the opportunities introduced by the Government for their development and growth.
Mr. Mawuli A. K. Asigbee, the UMAP Director welcomed participants to the 3-day training and implored them to take advantage of knowledge and skills sharing to improve on their operations.
Mr. Derrick Owusu-Ansah, the Project Manager – TEDMAG speaking on behalf of the TEDMAG Consortium (Universities of Saskatchewan and Missouri, and UMAP Ghana – INGO) said the consortium working with MoFA would provide technical support for participants to train their respective FBOs and value chain actor groups members in the 16 regions of Ghana. He added that the third phase of the training would see all agricultural extension agents across the country being trained to provide the necessary technical backstopping to FBOs and value chain actors at the national, regional and district levels across Ghana.
The TEDMAG Project is funded by Global Affairs Canada under the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana programme with the objective of building the capacities of Ghana’s agricultural extension agents to support the government’s agenda of modernising and commercialising agriculture. The project has successfully trained more than 140 tutors from the five agricultural colleges in Ghana and over 6,500 agricultural extension agents country-wide. The project aim is to reorient extension delivery services in Ghana to respond to the needs of various stakeholders and international standards.
