Prospects in Ghana’s citrus industry impeded by poor market

Citrus growers in parts of the country, benefitting from a capacity building programme, say they are better equipped with knowledge and skills to improve production for higher yields.

They however say the interventions would only translate into higher income levels when Ghana is able to attract investments in fruit processing facilities.

“After getting better quality and more yields, if we don’t have better storage and market for produce, then it will amount to zero”, said Ofori Amanfo Dacosta, Chairman of the Ahafo Ano South Citrus Growers and Marketers Association.

A trilateral cooperation between Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Israel’s International Development Agency (MASHAV) and Germany’s International Cooperation (GIZ) is empowering citrus farmers across the country.

The training entails improved agronomic, pest and disease management practices in citrus production. The participants are taken through topics such as nursery management, planning citrus orchard, cultural practices, and factors militating against citrus production, irrigation and nutrition.

The overall aim of the cooperation is to contribute to improved quality citrus production for improved sustainable income to all actors within the citrus value chain, said Charles Kwame Sackey, Agriculture and Value Chain Advisor with GIZ.

The target is to double Ghana’s citrus yield which is currently stands at 20-25 tons per hectare – against industry average of 70-80tons per hectare in countries like Brazil, Spain and Israel.

Mr. Sackey told Luv Fm the programme also has the aim of training and certifying citrus nursery operators to produce right varieties of seedlings for the industry.

“We’ve also come to the conclusion, after doing a lot of research in the country, that most of our citrus trees are virus infested, so we we’d have to perhaps work with the Israelis so that they help bring us new virus-free seedlings to set up modern or improved nurseries in the country”, he stated.

Two Israeli agricultural experts, Dr. Shmuel Gross and Dov Rabber, led the Kumasi training session, which exposed 50 citrus farmers in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions to hands-on field training.

The farmers are enthused at the prospects of the training to enhance production quality to attract markets.

 

But they believe value addition in fruit processing remain critical to promote the citrus industry.

“When you harvest, you don’t have any storage facilities here, so within a very short time everything will get rotten”, Mr. Dacosta decried.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh