About 236 farmers in the Adansi District of the Ashanti region have benefitted from a Capacity Training program, organized by the Ghana Chamber of Farmers (GCF).

The Ghana Chamber Of farmers, is an NGO based in Accra with the aim of providing technical and financial support to farmers to improve their standard and quality of living. The theme for the programme was “farming the green gold”

The beneficiaries, who are members of the chamber were taken through skills enhancement and other capacity building programmes in farming.

The Director of the programmeMr. Bernard Bediako-Nayo, explained that realizing that most people, especially the youth show low interest in farming after school, the chamber decided to intervene by empowering the youth with the necessary technical skills.

“Job opportunities are scarce in the country and after university, students do not take advantage of the vast fertile land available in the country so as to be entrepreneurs. Most people want to be in an air conditioned offices after school but forget there is a ‘green gold’ somewhere than the office” he said.

Last year, he said some selected farmers benefited from chilli seeds accessibility project and currently some have been given loans to be repaid in three months.

The Marketing Manager of the organisation, Mr. Emmanuel Martey, citing himself as an example, said he had no interest in farming until things got worse with his business, resulting in him venturing into farming for which he has no regrets.

Some beneficiaries expressed gratitude to the chamber for organizing the programmefor them at no cost to them.

“‘We have learnt a lot today’. We thought we were doing the right things as farmers but this training has really helped shaped us. We also thank the organisation for their technical and financial supports” Jackson Fullah, a farmer said.

The farmers also raised some challenges they face as rural farmers. Some of these are absence of farm tractors and availability of agro products which the organisation seek to address this year.

Since its establishment, the chamber has registered over 1,000 farmers across the country