The concept of home-gardening is catching on in the Upper West Region. Many professionals, both young and old, have begun growing their own food in small quantities aside their main occupation. They do this in containers, sacks, discarded car tires and other ‘backyard’ spaces.
This concept is growing because according to many who engage in the practice, it is a great way to grow healthy, organic fruits and vegetables for home consumption while making some extra income by selling excess fruits, vegetables, seeds and other planting materials. Speaking to A1radio at Wa, one of such home gardeners, Mr. Rufus Nantamba Yennah indicated that he started the process as a way to save money on food and other food products.
“I started home gardening to save money and to eat purely organic vegetables produced from my garden. Since I started home gardening, I have not bought a number of vegetables from the market”.
Mr. Yennah currently grows garden eggs, spinach, tomatoes, turmeric, cocoyam, ‘alefu’, ‘ayo-yo’, hibiscus (sobolo), okro, cabbage, carrot, plantain, pawpaw, curry plant, noni, cassava, coconut plant, oil palm plant, sunflower, mangoes, pepper and sweet potatoes.
For Mr. Yennah the process of growing ones food whilst satisfying comes with a varying number of challenges; particularly pest infestation. “One of my major challenges is pest control. It is not easy controlling pests especially on my garden-egg plants but I am working on it. The neem leaf extract is quite effective,” he said.
Some other challenges include the transportation of planting materials, seeds and other garden inputs from other parts of the country to the Upper West Region. “Some seeds and seedlings are not readily available within the region. I ordered strawberry and grape seedlings recently from Accra. It was quite difficult receiving them in Wa without any damage. I am glad they are growing well, anyway,” he said.
His interest in gardening grew exponentially when he came across a social media platform named ‘Home Gardening Ghana’. The Facebook group is a group with like-minded individuals who share ideas on growing crops organically.
“I have been with home gardening platform (Facebook) for about nine months now. I can’t mention all the benefits I have derived so far from home gardening. What I say is that, the free seeds and seedlings policy amongst members is a great idea. I have received free seeds from all the way in Volta Region and the Greater Accra Region. I have been eating more vegetables since I started home gardening. I have never taken rice without vegetables. The other hidden benefit is the exercise aspect. I have lost some weight from the daily activities in my garden,” he explained.
Mr. Rufus Nantamba Yennah was a classroom teacher at St. Francis Xavier Minor Seminary who handled mathematics until he joined the Ghana Health service in March, 2021 as a Biostatistician.
The ‘Home Gardening Ghana’ platform was founded by Dr. Frank Kwekucher Ackah on 3rd July, 2020. Dr. Ackah, a lecturer and a crop scientist at the Department of Crop Science, University of Cape Coast founded the group to “promote home gardening in Ghana and improve discussions on the construction of gardens, growing of crops, improving of soil nutrition and management of pest and diseases using the organic methods. Members can also share ideas relating to gardening so as to encourage others.”
The group boasts of a current membership of about 188 thousand members from countries across the globe.
A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz| Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
