Latest News 2007

December - KITA awarded the ‘Best Institution‘ by Ministry of Food and Agriculture

KITA was awarded the ‘Best Institution‘  by the The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) at the 23rd Farmers Day celebration in the Ejisu Juaben District, held on the 7th of December 2007.

This award was in recognition of KITA‘s immense contribution towards the development of agriculture in Ghana.

The District Director of Agriculture, Mrs Beatrice Mante said, KITA‘s contribution to the development of quality human resource for agriculture and  its community extension programs to the rural farmers in the district is remarkable. KITA has been very instrumental in propelling the development of agriculture in the Ejisu Juaben District through its village development programs, agroforestry, environmental conservation, seeds and input support to the rural farmers, FBO‘s , the youth and women in the district.

Read the whole article and see the award being presented here

October - KITA continues to make great strides in imparting technical vocational education and training in the West African sub region.

KITA's Professional Farmers College opened in August for a new academic year.

KITA holds a graduation ceremony for 50 diploma students in the 2006/07 academic year. The colourful ceremony was attended by many dignitaries including the newly installed chief of the Apromase community, eminent chiefs from the Domeabra village, Nana Kwaku Siaw of Kumaf farms Comples who is the second National Best farmer for 2004, lecturers, Peace Corps volunteers, government officials and other invited guests. The theme for the graduation ceremony was 'the Agricultural graduate, a tool for enhancing sustainable food security in the new millennium' In this light the Speaker called on the graduates to make better use of the training they have received at KITA and go out to excel as professional farmers and agriculturalist.
Pictures of the graduation ceremony will be uploaded soon.

New students eager to undertake a Diploma course in Tropical Agriculture (Dip.TA), and Certificate courses in Agriculture has trooped in to school for the 2007/08 academic year in August 2007.About 60 students have enrolled in the Diploma program this year. Among the practical training programs at the institute, students are taken through organic vegetable farming techniques, bio-intensive farming, horticulture, animal husbandry, farm management and agricultural economics to mention but a few.

KITA also runs a distance learning program in general agriculture for working professionals. This year about 20 students enrolled in the distance learning program
graduated.

Community Extension and Rural Development

This October, a number of programs are on-going within our community extension and rural development department.

The Future Farmers of Ghana clubs (FFG) established in Apromase and Domeabra Junior high schools are growing in numbers. The FFG clubs program introduced in line with the Future Farmers America is to encourage youth in high schools to take up farming as a career. High school pupils in rural areas are being trained in practical vocational employable agricultural skills. It is also aimed at re-organising school gardens to improve upon food supply in schools in line with the government of Ghana's school feeding program. This year Michelle Schram of Winepeg Canada, from Village volunteers’ organisation, who is volunteering with KITA for 3 months, is coordinating the program assisted by KITA technical officers and students.

Pictures of training program will be loaded soon.

Peace Corps Volunteer trainees at KITA

KITA also embarks on training for New Peace Corps Volunteer trainees at KITA. The trainees were taken through principles of permaculture, organic farming, agroforestry and alternative livelihoods.

See full details with pictures here (.pdf download 517kb)

KITA takes on Kwadaso at Sport

KITA students held a sports competition with the Kwadaso Agric college also situated in Kumasi. Sports organised included soccer, volleyball, and table tennis. The KITA Professionals Football Club beat their counterparts by a loan goal and won in both the soccer and the table tennis. The Kwadaso opponents went away with a win in the volley ball competition.

Leuceana Project

As part of the community agroforestry project. KITA launched the leuceana project this quarter aimed at educating rural farmers in the uses and importance of leuceana as a sustainable agroforestry tree.  

See full details with pictures here (.pdf download 266kb)

New District Vocational Agricultural Colleges 

KITA has been given the nod to establish district vocational agricultural Colleges in the country. This is to encourage more of the unemployed youth to undergo training and gain employable skills in vocational agriculture and be given opportunity to further their studies into universities in the country. The Institute is liaising with a number of district assemblies and other stakeholders to assist in establishing and running of vocational agricultural colleges in Ghana. An initial project begins in the Dodowa district. KITA invites NGO's, donor agencies and institutions to support the district project in order to promote sustainable training for the youth in agriculture.

KITA supplying seedlings for community tree planting

In November, KITA is liaising with the Forestry department of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research at Fumesua in supplying of tree seedlings for community tree planting exercise in Apromase and Domeabra villages. Upon the instalment of a new Chief in Apromase in the Ejisu Juaben district, The Apromase village opens up and shows initiative to support development programs in the village. A needs assessment conducted with the community leaders revealed the need to improve the environmental conditions in the village through tree planting and to create employment opportunities in agriculture. The chief is also instituting policies and programs to ensure sanitation and cleanliness in the community by the provision of dustbins at vantage points in the community. The Apromase community with the employment rating being mainly farmers require the improvement of agricultural programs in the village. A holistic support system to promote agriculture development in the community is greatly welcomed.

KITA initiates the Community Youth in Agribusiness Empowerment Project.

This project is aimed at providing vocational technical training for selected unemployed youth in the villages in the Ejisu Juaben district. This month a pilot project began with 5 youth selected from the domeabra community and trained in Mushroom and rabbit production. The youth were supplied with female rabbits and a number of mushroom bags as start-up capital to begin their businesses. The pilot project has been very successful in creating employment for the youth in the local villages. About 100 youth including women from the 5 surrounding communities are being enrolled for another schedule of training and empowerment. The trainees are taken through the skills and techniques of mushroom farming, rabbitry, snail, grasscutter, beekeeping and vegetable production to enhance food security and income generation in the dry season. the major project is to begin in December.

June - KITA HOST RADIO FORUM ON ORGANIC FARMING!

Students of KITA begin a series of public radio education of permaculture and organic farming on Ash FM in the Kumasi Metropolis. Students handled topics on applicable permaculture in Ghana. There was an interesting debate on air on the sustainability of organic farming in Ghana and people phoned in from all over the region to ask questions of various kinds.

These KITA students have originally partaken in Fundamentals of Permaculture course organised by KITA and Permaculture NETWORK in the EXPO Hotel in Techiman which was facilitated by Gregg Knibbs of Australia. IT was a well participated program and the next public radio educational program is scheduled to be held in the last weeks in June.

[You can enjoy many images showing what is happening at KITA in our photo album.]

June - KITA Undertakes Youth Leadership Training in the Surrounding Communities.

Youth in the Junior and Senior High Schools around the surrounding villages around KITA is to have the opportunity to be trained in various leadership skills to help them live exemplary lives and learn new behavioural traits. This training is being facilitated by KEVIN STUMP of the Village Volunteers who arrived in Ghana on Sunday 3rd June 2007. Topics being treated ranges from responsibility, goal setting, vision, mentoring, courage, community service and career development.

This training program is to shape the focus of the youth in the villages to set good standards of behaviour and lead by exemplary service in the community.

June - KITA is making great strides in the development of Agriculture in Ghana and the West African Sub-region.

KITA - PPPF Cooperation:

KITA Donates Bicycles and Farm Inputs to Rural Farming Families in Essienimpong in the Ejisu Juaben District.

KITA and the Perpetual Prosperity Pump Foundation in the USA has donated a number of farm inputs and provided training for 10 farmers and their families including women farmers in various farm enterprises ranging from Vegetable Production, Rabbitry, Mushroom Production, Oil palm plantation farming, Poultry and Beekeeping.

These training projects are meant to empower purely farming families to improve their incomes on a sustainable basis by adding other farm enterprises to their normal farm activities that are able to double their yearly income by more than 300%. The farmers received training in all the programs mentioned above and received farm inputs to improve their farming practices. The Donation was launched by Jim Riordan of PPPF USA and Samuel Owusu-Takyi the Senior Technical Officer of KITA.

AT KITA we care for the rural people. We look forward to improving the farming practice in Ghana through sustainable permaculture technology and to help improve the living standards of the rural poor especially the food crop farmer in Ghana.

May - KITA HOST RADIO FORUM ON ORGANIC FARMING!

Students of KITA begin a series of public radio education of permaculture and organic farming on Ash FM in the Kumasi Metropolis. Students handled topics on applicable permaculture in Ghana. There was an interesting debate on air on the sustainability of organic farming in Ghana and people phoned in from all over the region to ask questions of various kinds.

These KITA students have originally partaken in Fundamentals of Permaculture course organised by KITA and Permaculture NETWORK in the EXPO Hotel in Techiman which was facilitated by Gregg Knibbs of Australia. IT was a well participated program and the next public radio educational program is scheduled to be held in the last weeks in June.

May - KITA - VILLAGE VOLUNTEERS PARTNERSHIP!

KITA is linked up with Village Volunteers International to open opportunity for volunteers from all over the world to visit Ghana and share in the experience of the Ghanaian Hospitality and to help improve the lives of the rural farmers. The rural farmer has been graded among the poorest of the poor in Ghana. KITA is linking up with volunteer organisations for community development work in the villages. it will be great to interact with women and children and the youth in the rural areas and help them improve upon their lives ranging from nutrition, education, improved farming skills and health.

April - KITA runs International Permaculture course

From 23 April to 2 May KITA is hosting a Permaculture course with guest speaker internationally renowned Permaculturist Gregg Knibbs from Australia leading the training. Around 200 NGOs, farmers and students have already expressed interest in the course.

KITA is at the forefront of providing Permaculture training in Ghana and this is the second Permaculture course run in collaboration with other NGOs in Ghana.

February - KITA offers new Agro Forestry course

On February 1st KITA reopened for the new semester. A New course in Agro Forestry has been introduced to teach students and rural farmers the benefits of growing trees  to conserve the environment and improve their living conditions.

The course is designed in line with the Trees for the Future training manual. KITA hopes to give students a and participants theoretical and practical skills in agro forestry to improve the environmental conditions where ever they go.

February - KITA introduces competency based farmer education and training programs

Kita introduces competency based farmer education and training programs to assist prospective and practising farmers to improve upon their managerial and technical skills. These short management and vocational training courses for enterprise development is tailored for farm managers, farm owners, civil servants, Non-governmental Organisations - NGOs, Farmer Based Organisations - FBOs, Community Based Organisations -CBOs, Youth groups, individuals, Churches and others who are interested in beginning a farm enterprise or improving an existing farm.

KITA believes that Farming is a dignified career that the youth can enter and be successful. It can be run independently and alongside other businesses. Farming, if well planned, can be very sustainable as a career. By receiving the requisite training, one can easily excel as a farmer.

We regret that in Ghana farming has been undermined by the youth as ‘traditional’ and left to the ‘old men’ and women who do not have the strength to produce enough food to support the growing population in Ghana's current dispensation. We encourage more of the youth to go into farming.

The Farmer Education and Training Programs are also tailored towards working civil servants. Most of the civil servants receive meagre salaries that are incapable of sustaining their families. At KITA we believe that families can earn more than their monthly salaries if they invest in an agro-enterprise. Agro-enterprises such as Mushroom Production, Poultry Production, Grass cutting Production, Rabbit Production, Organic Vegetable Production, Beekeeping, Snail Farming etc are very good income generating agro enterprises that have a high potential for sustaining families.

KITA's assessment of Oyster Mushroom production reveals a large market for fresh organic and processed mushrooms. It can be easily nurtured in the urban cities and rural areas and sustain women who are in trades of various kinds. The KITA Alumni Association of Mushroom Growers are making a great impact in mushroom production and processing and we want to encourage more people to go into mushroom production since it has a great export potential and even a large consumer size in the local market.

February - KITA starts the 'Adopt a Family' program

In 2007, KITA has began the 'Adopt a Family’ program that seeks to support rural families to increase their incomes and sustain their livelihoods. This program seeks to train hundreds of families in agro enterprises that are capable of generating adequate income to sustain them. it has been introduced by Jim Riordan and is being coordinated by Samuel Owusu-Takyi, the senior technical officer of KITA together with pastor Joseph Mensah, the project training officer. Currently about 16 families have began training in vegetable production. these families are being supported by philanthropic families in the USA who donates shoes, bicycles and other farm inputs for the training and project set-up for the farming families.

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