My name is Charles Agyei from Aggreso Society in the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
I am a 42-year-old farmer. I was part of the farmers that were present during the trainings on pest and disease control last season. It was very helpful to me since I had a problem with pest infestation on my farm. Being part of the training session on pest and disease control has really given me the techniques to tackle pest and disease issues on my farm. The general trainings were good, but I think I was able to get more knowledge from the one-on-one coaching that took place. These were more personal, and I could talk about the issues I faced in particular. I have learned about identifying pest and diseases, implementing cultural practices, and utilizing biological control methods. I believe these were very effective because of the changes I keep seeing on my farm when I followed the guidelines given to me. By applying them, I have seen a reduction in crop losses and an increase in yields.
One of the aspects I truly enjoyed was the discussions of climate change and how it affected the farm. The Technical Officers who came around told us about shade trees and their importance on our farms. After distributing the trees for planting, they encouraged us to plant the trees immediately to enable good survival rates during periods where the weather was favorable. I was one of the farmers that was given 10 shade trees for planting, and this covered almost an acre of my cocoa farmland. The Officers also told us these trees will further minimize the emission of greenhouse gases. I am happy that I can play a part in helping the environment at the same time helping my farm. They also came to monitor the shade trees and I was happy that to show them the good survival rate of the trees.
