Kwesil-Ansah (C/R), Sept 2, GNA - An Ecological Training Centre to impart beekeeping, ruminant rearing, agro-forestry and organic farming skills to the youth has been established at Kwesil-Ansah, near Abeadze Dominase in the Mfantseman District of the Central Region. Global Habitat for Homeless, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) at Mankessim established the Centre with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through the Small Grant Programme and the Global Environment Facility.

Speaking at a three-day workshop organised by the NGO at the weekend for 30 people from six communities in the area on modern method of farming, Mr J.B. Abandoh, Executive Director of Global Habitat, commended Nana Takyi XIV, Chief of Kwesil-Ansah, for donating three acres of land for the Centre.

He stressed the need to encourage farmers to adopt organic farming instead of the use of chemicals to improve the soil quality, which damaged the land in the long run and was expensive. Mr Abandoh explained that Organic farming was the method of allowing the decomposition of leaves and the use of animal excrement as manure to improve the soil, which also preserved the land. He appealed to communities living near forests to create buffer zones to protect them.

Mr John Darrah, Agriculture Extension Agent at the Mfantseman District Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, who took the participants through the rearing of ruminants, such as rabbits and grass-cutter urged farmers to rear animals to support their incomes and to protect certain species of breed from extinction. Mr George W. Neizer, Course Prefect, commended the NGO and the UNDP for organizing the workshop.

He called for efforts to promote bio-diversity to protect the ecology from environmental degradation. The NGO has also established a nursery to produce certain timber species for farmers as part of its efforts to promote forestation and ecological protection.