In her quest to utilise her long stay at home before being enrolled onto government payroll, a nurse has taken up farming at Mampong Municipality of the Ashanti Region.
Known as Ama Serwaa Ennin, the 23-year-old nurse, who completed her National Service in June this year is engaged in vegetables and snail farming as a means of eking out a living on her own, after completing Nursing Training College.
In an exclusive interview with The Chronicle, Serwaa Ennin indicated she began her National Service in July 2022, and in the middle of her service , she realised she was going to be at home for a long period of time, hence, decided to venture into farming.
“Whilst I was doing my National Service, I realised that I would not be posted anytime soon after the service, so I wanted to go into farming,” she said.
According to Serwaa, she has been into farming for six months and had recorded her maiden harvest, which was positive.
She has subsequently charged Ghanaian youth to explore areas in agriculture that they could engage in for profit.
“I want to tell them if they get the opportunity to acquire land, they can start something on it. Sometimes it does not even necessarily have to be bigger land. It depends on how you are going to manage it. They can venture into farming, because it is lucrative – there is money in it.
Asked if she intended to continue with farming if she was employed by the state as a nurse, she responded in the affirmative – that farming had become part and parcel of her, “but I will still practice nursing, because I love nursing.”
Quizzed about the source of her land, she responded that they had a piece of land at the back of their house, so she took the opportunity to farm on it.
Responding to a question about the kind of foodstuff she was cultivating as a farmer, she disclosed that she was into carrot, lettuce, cabbage and shallot production, adding that she was also into snail farming.
Serwaa Ennin noted that she harvests the lettuce every two months, but the carrot and cabbage took three months to mature.
According to her, she took up snail farming before vegetables, but the former takes time to mature.
Asked about how the vegetables farm was going, she responded in the affirmative, saying it was encouraging.
On challenges she had been battling as a farmer, Ennin revealed that her main problem has been the source of water, because she has been using watering cans to water the crops and could not do much because of that.
“We have a bigger land here I could have cultivated, but because I do not have access to the irrigation system, I water the crops daily myself.”
The nurse farmer also disclosed that pests have been attacking her crops.
Asked about how frequent she watered the crops, she explained that it depended on the stage at which the crops had reached, adding that at the nursery stage they were watered continuously, but they could be watered once a day after transplanting.
On the means within which she sold her produces, she mentioned that she sometimes takes them to the market, adding that her clients also came to the farm gate.
Responding to questions about how her snail farming was fairing, she told this report that it was lucrative, but took time.
“If you want to get the jumbo sizes, you have to work for about one to two years. If you are not patient, you cannot venture into snail farming. You can get many snails, but it takes time,” she said.
Asked about her source of finance in feeding the snails, she indicated that she had been using some of her vegetables to feed them. “I started with the snail farming, but their feeding was very expensive, that is why I added the vegetables; I felt that it is very profitable too. I also give them calcium supplement and formulated feed.”
