Ghana Maize Farmer Trains Others

Evans Peter Nsiah is on a mission to change agriculture in West Africa, starting with his corner of Ghana.

A cowpea and maize farmer and trader in Ejura al area in Ghana’s northern Ashanti region farmers in the correct use of pesticides in a regional, train-the-trainer workshop on Integrated Pest Management (IPM) provided jointly by the USAID Agribusiness & Trade Promotion project and CropLife. He was so impressed by the environmentally sound principles and agriculturally pos tive practices he learned, that he pledged to help farmers in community, focusing on the correct use of pesticides aspect of IPM.

Nsiah is well-known in Ejura, and thus was able to access d cumentary evidence on local agricultural practices. He says he found that almost 60% of the local crops were damaged due to the wrong choice or application chemicals used on them. He was even more shocked by what he saw in the field.

“At times, farmers use chemicals that aren’t meant for th ticular pest or disease,” he recounts, “and they also use doses and a form of application that are wrong. spray the chemicals against the wind, waiting the right amount of time to let the chemicals break down. The chemical spray makes the products look shiny in the market, but it also poisons them.”

Since his own USAID ATP/CropLife training, 350 women and 150 men (women comprise the majority in small-scale farming) – farmers, chemical chemical sellers – in not only how to choose, use and apply pesticides, but also in how to dispose of their containers without creating an environmental hazard. He has also started an NGO called “Eat-IPM Association” www.eatipmasso.webs.com which is devoted to helping farmers in Ejura.

“The training-of-trainer workshop really broadened my horizon,” Nsiah attests. “Right then I saw the need to quickly others what I had learned, so I could help them improve their yields and quality of their products.”