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B-BOVID Limited, an indigenous agro-based company, has signed an agreement with Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL), a rubber producing company, to assist farmers in the Western region to boost food security. Per the agreement, GREL will use the premises of B-Bovid on the Apowa-Prestea road near Takoradi as a demonstration and training centre to train farmers in the Rubber Out-Grower Plantations Project of GREL on livestock keeping and crop production. The initiative will also help the farmers acquire skills and adopt best agricultural practices to increase food production and sufficiency for rubber out-grower households. Issa Ouedraogo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of B-Bovid, noted that his outfit was also building a modern Information & Communication Technology (ICT) centre for farmers. He explained that the centre, the first of its kind in the Western region, would help train and support smallholder farmers and the youth to use indigenous knowledge and modern farming technology to improve productivity. Mr Ouedraogo added that the company would soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Development Studies (UDS), Tamale; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi and other international institutions to collaborate and help make the centre a knowledge hub for farmers. B-Bovid, he noted, combined innovative agricultural practices, ecological farming and social entrepreneurship to deliver high quality organic products, conserve the environment, create jobs and reduce poverty in rural communities. �It is based on these social commitments that the company has partnered with GREL to secure the future against food insecurity,� he added. B-BOVID�s core business includes the cultivation of organic oil palm, extraction of crude palm oil, palm kernel oil, as well as refining them into finished products. It has also acquired machines that process organic products from the company�s factory into organic animal feed and fertilizer for sale to farmers at reduced prices. B-BOVID has also developed programmes in vegetable and fish farming as well as animal husbandry to provide sustainable jobs, alternative sources of livelihood to promote food security. Lionel Barres, Managing Director of GREL, was optimistic the partnership agreement between his outfit and B-Bovid would achieve the desired positive results. He also said GREL had instituted a food crop programme aimed at assisting farmers to produce enough quality food per unit area in its operational areas.