Ghana has long been considered a farming nation with agriculture contributing up to 54 % of Ghana’s GDP, and accounting for over 40 % of export earnings, while at the same time providing over 90 % of the food needs of the country according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
Though Ghana’s agriculture is predominantly smallholder, traditional and rain-fed, there are individuals and organisations taking advantage of the available resources to expand into commercial spaces by introducing modern science and technology to the scene.
Defarmercist outfit is one of such entities changing the face of agriculture in Ghana. Defarmercist describes itself on LinkedIn as a farm management and consulting company offering training and agronomie support services and is headed by Charles Agyeman as General Manager and Alex Afari as Operations Manager.
All over social media, Alex and Charles have shared news and photos of the amazing things the organisation has been achieving, growing plants without soil, building and managing a greenhouse, yielding amazing harvests from plants that are otherwise foreign to Ghana among others.
They also run a YouTube page where they share titbits on modern farming practices to help Ghanaian farmers.
Alex is a product of the University of Ghana from where he graduated with a Bachelor degree in Agriculture Science, majoring in Post-Harvest technology, a choice one of his lecturers reportedly discouraged him from making.
He went on to acquire a certificate in Agronomy from Agritop Greenhouse before going ahead to Israel to study Greenhouse and modern agriculture, farm management and agronomy.
He has worked as greenhouse trainer with his alma mata Agritop Greenhouse, a field technician and quality assurance officer for Havivian Organic farm and much recently, a self-employed agronomist and consultant.
Currently, Alex is the operations manager and a resident agronomist with Defarmercist.
Charles is also a product of the University of Ghana, Legon where he studied for a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Philosophy both in Crop Science. He served as a teaching assistant in his department for National Service.
He has worked as a graduate research assistant, an agronomist and trainer with Agritop and is now the General Manager and an agronomist for Defarmercist.
The aim of the organisation is to finally make the importation of certain food crops a thing of the past.
With the impressive work they are doing, Charles and his team need more exposure and investments to enable them fully realise their potential.
