Beef farm the goal | Earth University student says he will take back ideas gleaned from Ontario vegetable farm
WATFORD, Ont. — Tropical Ghana is meeting temperate Canada, thanks to a southwestern Ontario farm family’s sponsorship of Hayford Gyamfi.
The 28-year-old student, who plans to pursue an agricultural career in his homeland, said his internship near this rural Ontario community with vegetable growers Tony and Joanne Hogervorst has been useful.
“We don’t grow such crops as you have here in Canada, but I’m not looking at that so much as the management and other strategies. These are things I can apply back home,” Gyamfi said.
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The Hogervorsts employ 20 offshore and Canadian workers, and Gyamfi has been working among them. It’s given him hands-on experience with post-harvest equipment, and he’s seen how the family manages their labour.
“As we have more time, we’ll talk more about the economics of the different crops,” Tony Hogervorst said.
Gyamfi, along with Hatian Pouleus Appolon, are the latest of several student interns hosted by the Hogervorst family. Both are studying at Earth University in Costa Rica.
They’ll be staying with the Hogervorsts in their home until January.
“There’s quite the expectation for these young people at this university. Only a fraction of the people who apply get into it,” Hogervorst said.
Earth University was founded in 1986 with support from the Costa Rican government, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
More than 80 percent of the 420 students from 35 countries are from rural communities. Sixty percent are on a full scholarship and 40 percent are women.
Gyamfi is pursuing a four-year master’s degree in agricultural sciences and natural resource management. He said the institution emphasizes sustainable agriculture, ethical values and social justice.
Working with a partner, Gyamfi hopes to establish a beef farm in two or three years in the northern part of Ghana, where his family has access to land.
Their idea is to start with a herd of 50 indigenous cattle, which are disease resistant and adapted to the region’s environment.
Rotational grazing of native grasses is also part of their plan, along with the storage of silage and hay for the dry season, tree planting and the construction of a bio-digester to turn manure into methane as an alternative to wood for cooking.
“Our population in Ghana is increasing every day, and we need to produce more to improve our country,” Gyamfi said.
“We want to make a sustainable farm — socially, economically and environmentally — and we want to provide jobs for young people.”
Gyamfi will be drawing on new ideas along with the accumulated wisdom of his country’s traditional farmers.
“Our farmers don’t have a lot of technical know-how, but they do have a lot of experience,” he said.
Typical crops in northern Ghana include corn, sorghum, millet, peanuts and yam. There is a wet season from June through October and a dry season from March through May. Rainfall tends to be variable for the rest of year.
Gyamfi, whose original ambition was to become a professional soccer player, graduated as a first class student from the Kwadasa Agricultural College in Ghana. On graduation day, he met a professor from Earth University who suggested he apply to the institution.
In 2011, he was awarded a full scholarship.
“I think the university has given me the platform to realize my dreams,” he said. “I’m a young guy trying to make something out my life.”
