This season, the majority of farmers in Nabdam, Ghana, have decided to take up large scale cultivation of orange flesh sweet potato. The farmers drawn from several communities declared their intention at a Stakeholders Platform Forum, organized by the Participatory Action for Rural Development Alternatives (PARDA) on the theme ”Orange Flesh Sweet Potato Production, Consumption, Processing and Marketing for Enhanced Households Food Security”.
PARDA, a Non-Governmental Organization working in rural areas in Northern Ghana in the area of Community Agriculture Intensification and Food Security (CAIFS), with funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, increased the farmers' capacity in orange flesh sweet potato storage technology during the 2015 crop season and this led to the increase of the crop production.
Sharing their testimonies at the stakeholder forum, the farmers indicated that unlike the previous crop season, where they encountered post harvest losses, they could now harvest the crop and store it for six months through the new technology. This enables them to find better markets for their produce.
Mr Joseph Ayinbilla, a Board Member of PARDA, said the project's goal is to ''Improve 250 households' production, consumption and incomes through availability of orange-flesh sweet potato using Sand Pit Method for storage and processing for marketing in the Nabdam District.''
He mentioned that among the project objectives was to increase production of orange-flesh Sweet Potato by the 250 households from six metric tons to fifteen metric tons per hectare and reduce post-harvest losses, as well as increase the income levels of 300 women through processing, packaging and marketing
Source: newsghana.com.gh