Farmers Urged To Undertake Moringa Cultivation

The Nkoranza-Kwabre Rural Bank in Brong-Ahafo in collaboration with the United States African Development Foundation (ADF), has organized a three-day training workshop at Techiman to educate about 80 farmers on the importance of the cultivation of the moringa plant, organic farming and bee keeping. The participants were drawn from Techiman municipality, Nkoranza North and South, as well as Kintampo North and Kintampo south districts. Mr. Richard Okoe, project manager of the foundation and the bank's micro credit project, said the workshop was part of the bank's programmes under its micro finance project, with the objective of alleviating poverty among mostly people in the rural areas and the unemployed youth. He said the foundation and the bank were supporting beekeepers and cashew farmers in the districts. Mr. Okoe said because the moringa plant had been identified as a useful and economic tree crop, there was the need to encourage the farmers to engage in its cultivation to help reduce poverty. He said the moringa farmers would receive support in the form of inputs and seeds, as well as the preparation and maintenance of their farmlands until harvesting. Mr. Newton Amaglo, an agriculturist and head of the Kpeve Agricultural Station in the Volta region disclosed that the moringa plant had several benefits including medicinal, nutritional and other economic values. He said the bark of the plant can be used to produce paper, the leaves for powder, energy drinks and medicine, whilst edible oil can be extracted from the seeds. Powder from the leaves can assist in the management of hypertension and diabetes. Mr. Amaglo, a member of the Moringa Association of Ghana, stressed the need for farmers to venture into the cultivation of the crop. Mr. Paul Yeboah, a Permaculture consultant, advised the farmers to adopt the system as a means of practicing all sorts of agriculture and diversify their farming methods. He said Permaculture included the growing of food crops, livestock breeding, bee keeping and snail as well as mushroom farming on the same piece of land.