Advocacy action by members of the Ekumfi Srafa Pineapple Growers Association (ESPGA) in Ekumfi in the Central Region has resulted in the increased allocation of the number of agricultural extension officers to the district to provide technical assistants to the farmers thereby improving their yields.

Members of the Ekumfi Srafa Pineapple Growers Association are happy with their recent financial status due to the high level of yields they have been recording from their farming activities as a result of adhering to best agronomy practices.

According to Mr. Kweku Issah Sakyi, he recorded revenue of GHc3, 000 from his last sales of pineapples and this compares favourably with previous sales of less than GHc1, 000. He explained that previously yields from his farm were not encouraging as pest, rodents and diseases destroyed the pineapples on the farm.

Mr. Sakyi has used part of the profit to renovate his house and also paid his ward’s tuition fees at school. “I used part of the money I got from the pineapple sales to renovate my house and also paid my child’s school fees something which had always been a burden,” he noted.

Another farmer, Ayuba Quansah, said he used the proceeds from his farm to finance his son’s tertiary education. “Last year my son could not go to school because I didn’t have the money but this year due to the impact of the advocacy action we embarked on, my son is in the university” he stated.

Members of the ESPGA attributed the positive results to the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund sponsored advocacy activities they embarked on which led to the increased number of agricultural extension officers allocated to the district from one to three. Periodically too, additional officers are sent from the regional directorate to augment the work of the three permanent officers.

As part of the advocacy activities, they association engaged duty bearers including the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) in Accra, Central Regional Directorate of MOFA, Ekumfi District Directorate of MOFA and Members of Parliament from the area. They also embarked on media engagement activities where they moved from radio station to other media platforms to give voice to their issues.

According to the Chairman of the association, Wofa Kwamina Kum, the association gained immense recognition as a result of the advocacy actions. “Now ESPG is well known across the country” adding that “We receive calls regularly from all parts of the country from pineapple growers who wants to be part of the association”

“Before the advocacy action, our membership hovered around 350 but now we have over 500 members,” he hinted. Adding that “more members means more dues”. Currently members of the association pay GHc5 as monthly dues and all members are duly paying.

The Chairman observed that the commitment level of members has also improved after the advocacy action and that has greatly impacted on the association’s activities.

The members of the association said the advocacy training and actions have improved their personal lives.

Madam Ewurasi Smith stated that, the advent of the agricultural extension officers introduced her to best practices in agronomy which informed her using the right quantity of fertilizers and insecticides to control pests on her farm. She added that pests such as centipedes and others attacked the pineapple suckers at different stages of growth, thereby affecting their optimum growth and yields. To control these pests, the farmers were introduced to Astrostar and K-optism insecticides and this has significantly controlled the level pest infestation on their farms.

Again, the pineapple farmers were introduced to mulching where the farm beds and some part of the farm were covered with moist dry leaves to keep the farm cool during hot temperatures. Apart, from keeping the farm cool, the farmers testified that the mulching also reduced the amount of weeds that grew on their farms “in the past, we spent amble time in weeding the farms but with the introduction of the mulching, it has controlled the weeds on our farms,” stressed madam Smith. “The advocacy trainings opened our eyes to best agronomy practices and the extension officers were ever ready to support to us. Previously, we farmed with the limited knowledge and we believe our efforts were below standard,” she noted.

“Sometimes when I have a challenge, I don’t wait for the extension officer to come around, I go to his office previously I couldn’t do that,” Mr. Quansah also added.

Wofa Kum further hinted that, the test production of Eku juice from the Ekumfi Fruits and Juice factory under government's flagship project, One District One Factory, provided them with some relief with regard to marketing. “Access to market has been one of our headaches and with the coming in of the Juice factory our pineapples will not rot away,” he chipped.

The factory, which is said to be the biggest pineapple juice processing factory in West Africa, is expected to process about 300,000,000 packs of juice annually for the local and export markets. Expected revenue to be generated by the factory annually is pegged at GH¢530 million. The Ekumfi Fruits and Juice factory is expected to begin production by December 2019.

Before the advocacy intervention, there was only one agricultural extension officer in the district. Accessing him to guide and update the farmers was very problematic. Whenever they tried to see him he gave excuses ranging from understaffing, lack of extension officers to even lack of resources to work with. The association’s investigations at the regional agricultural office of Ministry of Food and Agriculture at Cape Coast indicated that the whole region lacked the required number of extension officers.

The absence of agricultural extension officers resulted in low productivity for the several years as knowledge on the new technologies in the production of pineapple had been unavailable to ESPG. On top of that, the government policy of providing subsidised fertilisers to farmers has been eluding them as they were not captured. Thus, they did not receive any allocation of the said fertilisers. In effect their varieties were poor thereby earning low incomes making expansion of farms problematic and unattractive to the youth in the community.

Furthermore, post- harvest losses had become a major challenge as technologies they were applying to curb them were ineffective. Avenues for export were also blurred to them.

In the face of these myriad of challenges the association sought the support of the BUSAC Fund towards advocating for agricultural extension officers to help alleviate their plight and guide and update them on the new technologies to adopt for producing marketable varieties of pineapple for export which have been eluding them.

The association expressed gratitude to BUSAC Fund the intervention and prayed that the Fund will support them in other areas of need.