TİKA's Tractor Support to Federation of Fruit Planters in Guinea

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) provided the Federation of Fruit Planters of Lower Guinea with a tractor, a trailer with an 8-ton load capacity, a harrow, and a plow, in order to increase the production of pineapple, mango and papaya fruits.

Speaking at the tractor delivery ceremony, President of the Federation Mousa Camara stated the following: "Thanks to TİKA's support including a tractor and all other equipment, we will make more than 3,000 decares of land ready for cultivation each year. In 2019, owing to TİKA's financial support, we cleared 1,000 decares of land with heavy equipment and made the cleared land ready for pineapple farming. Since we do not have a tractor, we have been able to plant pineapples on 35 hectares out of 100 hectares so far. We will quickly plow the remaining 65 hectares first to make them ready for pineapple planting. It is not possible for us to engage in large-scale agriculture without a tractor because it prevents time and yield loss at the same time. TİKA's support is not limited to these activities; in addition, today, we are laying the foundation for a fruit drying and packaging facility. Hopefully, TİKA will provide us with cold storage in the near future. Our goal is to increase pineapple exports to 50 thousand units per year by 2025. The friendly relationship between the presidents of two countries is a really strong asset in terms of the cooperation between Turkey and Guinea.”

TİKA’s Guinea Coordinator Gökhan Keser said: "We initiated a 3-year program to increase fruit production and diversity in Guinea. This program involves clearing of 100 hectares of land with heavy equipment, establishing an irrigation system on the land, a grant for tractors, establishing a fruit drying and packaging facility, cold storage, and fruit juice production and packaging facility. Once all these projects are completed, we will observe an increase in yield, employment, and export in the fruit sector. We are planning to invite the President of the Federation and the export team to Turkey for new business contacts. Our primary goal is to meet the packaging needs in this sector with support from Turkish companies.”