310 Tonnes of Vegetable Harvested Thanks to TİKA's Agriculture Project in Guinea

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) provided support for Guinea in growing 310 tonnes of vegetables by reclaiming 280 decares of land for agriculture in the city of Koba with a population of 600,000 people.

Most of the residents of Koba earn their livelihood through rice farming. A large portion of the land cannot be reclaimed for agriculture in warm seasons due to the financial problems caused by the lack of tropical rain.

Thanks to the project which had been initiated by TİKA in 2020, the required irrigation system to reclaim 28 hectares of land for farming has been set up and the farmers have been provided fertilizer, herbicide, seeds and farming equipment. Furthermore, the land was ploughed with a tractor in order to prevent the potential loss of time or crops. 310 tonnes of okra, bell pepper, tomato and eggplant have been harvested as a result of this project, which helped 250 families.

In his statement regarding the project, Alseny Camara, Director of Agriculture of the Koba District at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, said that TİKA's support has motivated the farmers and they demonstrated that they could succeed when given a chance. Camara continued: “We produced hundreds of tonnes of vegetables. We'd like TİKA to continue their support for the farmers. Agriculture is the most important industry in this country for the development of people and we need the experience of a developed country such as Turkey in this regard. We shouldn't stop at increasing production; we should also ensure the preservation of the products in cold storage and the sale in a hygienic environment.”

TİKA’s Guinea Coordinator Gökhan Keser said: “I understand what the farmers have been going through. I also carried sacks of tea as a young man. But at the end, the people of Rize developed thanks to tea farming. They bought houses and cars, they provided education for their children. Nowadays, seasonal workers come from other regions to work the land. Ivory Coast, a country from West Africa, has also been developing thanks to agriculture. We need to rapidly establish a trade network based on agriculture in Guinea as well.”