By Rebecca Sedinam Affor
Sustaining the economy of Ghana has become the most spoken topic lately. The government is putting various measures in place to stabilize the hike in prices of goods and services on the market.
Encouraging more youth to go into agriculture and backyard gardens to grow and eat what is produced in Ghana has been widely propagated.
Backyard Gardening
Recently, l noticed a young man, possibly in his mid30s around, Asylum down, ( a suburb of Accra), who was engaged in backyard gardening.
We had an interaction and gues what? He termed his garden ” a Container Garden”.
The reason being and quite interestingly, most of his plants began their lives from what he referred to as Containers.
You can also guess what inspired him, and l asked him exactly that question.
“I find it fun and it’s very lucrative”, …..said.
He further explained the reason behind the use of the water Containers.
“Using the water Containers is with the aim of encouraging reuse and recycling of waste product to reduce pollution of these wastes in the environment and it also helps to plant more crops even with a very small space”.
An interesting answer from Chief John Vanderpauye keep me glued and i continued with questions.
As I toured in his backyard garden, I realized a lot of foodstuff is being cultivated.
Vegetables, including Green pepper, cabbage, pepper (kpakpo shito), okro , cocoyam, tomatoes, and garden eggs.
More foodstuff
Interestingly this Backyard Gardener also owns a Poultry Farm.
He is also into Aqua Life business where Chief Vanderpauye said he has cat fishes in bigger Containers, where he rears them for commercial purposes and also for domestic consumption.
Guess what? on the Poultry, when the eggs for the broilers are hatched, he sells them.
According to Chief Vanderpuye, he also cultivates crops like: maize, cassava, yam among others.
He plans to train interested persons to take up agriculture for livelihoods.
Chief Vanderpauye’s message to the Youth is simple.
”Get involved in agriculture to reduce the importation of basic commodities in Ghana”.