Smallholder vegetable farmers at Akomadan in the Offinso North District have been provided with improved seedlings to increase their yield and boost vegetable production in the area.

They have also received training and capacity building in vegetable production, as well as best agronomic practices to enable them to produce quality and healthy vegetables for the market, while increasing their incomes to improve on their livelihoods.

The training programme which involved tomatoes, pepper and onion farmers, was implemented by the West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WAACI) under the Agricultural Technology Evaluation (GAME) Project, with financial support from SNV in the Netherlands and Africa Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).

Dr. Leander Dede Melomey, GAME Project Officer, speaking at an evaluation and field training exercise for the farmers, said the aim of the project was to promote and enhance smallholder farmers’ access to variety of quality and improved seeds.

It also aimed at helping private breeders and seed companies to discover and deploy high yielding, well adapted and appropriate varieties of vegetable seeds for farmers in the country.

Dr. Melomey said the project would further enhance the deployment of effective technologies to enable seed growers supply quality seedlings to new and existing markets across the country.

Mr. Louis Davis, Sales Officer for Louis Dreyfus Company Limited, a seed supply company, said the project would help improve farmers’ access to quality improved seeds and best agronomic practices.

Mr. Bismark Nyarko, a vegetable farmer and beneficiary of the project, said he could now produce healthy, quality and high yielding vegetables as a result of the training programme.