50,000 Farmers to Benefit from OCP School Lab Flagship Program

General News of Thursday, August 1, 2019

Source: OPC Ghana

2019-08-01

OCP Africa, a subsidiary of OCP Group, one of the world's leading producers of phosphate and its derivatives with nearly 100 years of experience, has successfully launched the OCP School Lab agro-school laboratory initiative. "(OSL) in Ejura in the Ashanti region, to support smallholders.

OCP School Lab, which was introduced in Ghana in 2017 in coordination with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, has the sole objective of increasing the yields and incomes of smallholders for the strategic crops by offering a comprehensive set of agricultural services including school with interactive training, live demonstrations and animation videos for increased adoption of good agricultural practices.

This program also includes soil tests for the same small farmers, a laboratory with the latest innovations, providing real-time information on soil requirements and fertilizer recommendations in terms of type of fertilizer, application rate and application time to optimize crop yields and benefits.

OCP School Lab provides these services to the most remote areas within multiple campaigns. Each campaign lasts from 6 to 10 weeks, during which the OSL truck goes to a selected region to provide soil testing and training sessions to farmers in the surrounding areas.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Mr. Solomon Ansah Gyan, Deputy Director of Crops at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, said that OCP Africa was in partnership with MOFA , the Departments of Agriculture and the Soil Research Institute to ensure farmers the best services to increase productivity.

He added that the regional and district agriculture departments were badisting OCP in designing the roadmap for the campaign in school labs, as well as in training for good agricultural practices for farmers.

Since the introduction of the OCP School Laboratory in Ghana, approximately 45,000 smallholders have benefited from the program in the North, Middle East, East and Brong Ahafo regions from 2017 to today. hui. The focus is on maize, rice, millet and sorghum.

During the first half of 2019, the campaign covered the eastern and Far East regions, using two trucks covering 150 communities and affecting about 20,000 farmers. For the second half of 2019, OCP Africa is raising the campaign a bit higher, as OCP School Lab (OSL) is expected to arrive in Ejura in the Ashanti region with 3 trucks and is expected to reach 30,000 additional farmers in 160 communities in both countries. Ashanti and then Upper West Regions.

S addressing reporters in Ejura after the launch, Mrs. Rose Adoma, a farmer, expressed her appreciation at the introduction and impact of the OCP school laboratory on their farm business. She said: "Previously, I was harvesting 3 bags in an acre of land, but after training, soil tests and advice from the OCP School Lab, I now harvest 13 bags in an acre of land."

OCP School Lab in Africa

Since the launch of the School Lab in 2016, more than 270,000 farmers have been trained in good agricultural practices in 8 African countries: Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Togo.