The Bono East regional directorate of the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with the Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) organized a 2-day training of trainers’ workshop for 16 extension officers on disease and pest management in garden eggs, cabbage, pepper, groundnuts, cowpea and soybean in Atebubu.
The exercise which was under the ‘Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana’ programme covered all eleven districts in the region and had one groundnut farmer, one garden eggs producer and the crops officer for the host district also participating.
The workshop was a response to findings at the 2021 regional Research-Extension-Farmer-Linkage Committee RELC review and planning session where it came to light that yields of the said crops were on the decline due to pest and disease infestation.
Increase productivity
According to Mr. Benard Marfo, the regional officer in charge of extension, the training is set to lead to an increase in production of the affected vegetables and legumes for the benefit of farmers and the country as a whole.
Mr. Godfried Ohene-Mensah, a Plant Pathologist with the Crops Research Institute took participants through the concept of disease with emphasis on the disease cycle and epidemics. He spoke on some general diseases affecting vegetables and their management after which he touched specifically on diseases affecting cowpea, soybean and groundnuts as well as pepper, garden eggs and cabbage stressing on their symptoms, mode of spread and control.
Mr. Paul Marno, a Plant breeder with the legumes division of the CRI spoke about best practices in the production of groundnuts, soybean and cowpea. He took participants through site selection, temperature and water requirements, land preparation, planting, varieties, agronomic practices, pests and diseases as well as harvesting and processing.
The Bono East regional coordinator of RELC, Dr. Kofi Frimpong-Anin who is also a Research Scientist spoke on the effective management of insect pests of cowpea, garden eggs, pepper and cabbage touching specifically on a number of these pests their signs and how to manage them.
