Global leading producer of phosphate and its derivatives OCP Africa has successfully launched its agro school lab initiative known as the ‘OCP School Lab’ (OSL) at Ejura in the Ashanti Region.The subsidiary of the OCP Group with almost 100 years of experience in the fertilizer industry launched the initiative to support small-scale farmers to help increase their yield. The OCP School Lab which was introduced to the country in 2017 in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Ministry with the aim of increasing the yields and the incomes of smallholder farmers on strategic crops. The company offers a full set of agro-services which includes a school with interactive training, live demonstrations and animated videos for an increased adoption of good agricultural practices.This program also includes soil testing for the same smallholder farmers, using a laboratory with latest innovations, providing live information on soil needs and fertilizer recommendations in terms of fertilizer type, application rate, and application time to optimize crop yields and profits. The OCP School Lab provides these services to the most remote areas within several campaigns. Each campaign lasts between six to 10 weeks during which the OSL truck travels a selected region to offer soil testing and training sessions to farmers from the surrounding areas.OCP Technician, explaining how the School Lab works to dignitaries at the eventSpeaking at the launch event, the Deputy Director of Crops at the Agric Ministry, Dr Solomon Ansah Gyan, indicated that OCP Africa has partnered with the Ministry, Departments of Agriculture and the Soil Research Institute to ensure that farmers are given the best services to increase productivity.He added that the Regional and District Departments of Agriculture assist OCP in designing the route map for the school lab campaign and also assist with training of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for farmers.Since the introduction of the OCP School Lab in Ghana, about 45,000 smallholder farmers have benefited from the program across the Northern, Upper East, Eastern and Brong Ahafo regions from 2017 until now. The focus is on maize, rice, millet, and sorghum. In the first half of 2019, the campaign has covered the Eastern and Upper East regions, using two trucks covering 150 communities and reaching over 20,000 farmers.For the second half of 2019, OCP Africa is raising the campaign a notch higher as the OCP School Lab (OSL) is set to arrive Ejura in the Ashanti region with 3 trucks and is expected to reach an additional 30,000 farmers in 160 communities in both Ashanti and then Upper West Regions.Rose Adoma, a farmer, expressed her delight at the introduction and impact of the OCP School Lab on her farm business.She said she used to harvest three bags from an acre of land but after the training, soil testing and advise from the programme, she now harvest 13 bags.