Senior High students patronise FAGRO 2010

14/10/2010

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE Second National Food and Agricultural Show (FAGRO 2010) entered its second day yesterday, with many senior high school (SHS) students trooping in to learn about varieties of crops, methods of farming, food processing and different kinds of farming machinery.
The students also learnt about the use of modern technology to increase productivity and improve quality of farm produce.
Accompanied by their teachers, the about 300 students from the Presbyterian SHS, Osu, Holy Trinity Cathedral SHS (HOTCASS), High Street, and Chemu SHS visited the various stands for briefings and attended a seminar on Food Processing and Preservation Methods.
Apart from the students, many people, especially farmers, have been visiting the various stands to enquire about farm produce, processed products, animal feeds, local dishes and farming machinery on display at the various stands at the pavilion.
The items include unpolished rice, dried mangoes, herbal medicines, natural cocoa powder, mashed and concentrated animal feeds, tractors and harvesters.
The week-long exhibition, being organised by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture on the theme: “Sustainable Agriculture through Appropriate Technology”, has attracted 250 exhibitors from Ghana, some neighbouring African countries, Europe and the United States of Africa. The number of the exhibitors has increased more than 100 per cent over last year's 120 exhibitors.
The stands include those of the Ghana National Farmers Union, National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners Association, Feedmillers Association, the Women in Agriculture Development Directorate of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and New Holland Tractors.
A few of the stands are yet to be occupied as of yesterday, while some exhibitors were seen arranging their stands as of 1p.m. yesterday.
Some of the exhibitors expressed joy at the attendance on the second day as some of them had already sold out some of their items.
They were hopeful that by the end of the exhibition they should have been able to promote the products.
However, other exhibitors said patronage was not as encouraging as they had expected, but were anticipating that it would pick up before the end of the exhibition on Sunday.
Other seminars were held yesterday on the following topics: “Policy Implementation on Farm”; “Productivity and Operations”; “Agriculture Technology for Developing Countries”; and “Managing Agro Business”.
Master Simon Laryea, a form four Geography student of the Chemu SHS, told the Daily Graphic that the exhibition had provided him and his colleagues the opportunity to have a first-hand view of some seeds, farm produce and machinery.
He said the information acquired was relevant to the topics treated in the Integrated Science and the Geography course he was offering.
Master Junior Ashong, a form three Science student of the Osu Presec said the exhibition had provided him the opportunity to see some farming machinery that he learnt about in school.
A Biology teacher of Chemu SHS, Mr Sulley Salim, said the school decided to bring the students to the exhibition, “to get first time information about agriculture, see various crops, learn about food processing and crop pests and diseases”.
The exhibition, which was opened by Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, is expected to raise the level of knowledge in certain business sectors and create development impact as employment, improved working conditions and environmental standards.