Story: Zakaria Alhassan, Tamale.
A Soil health project that is targeted at boosting maize and legume production in the three northern regions was on Tuesday inaugurated in Tamale.
The 1.54 million US Dollars project is aimed at increasing maize-legume production through up scaling of proven integrated soil fertility management technologies and the strengthening of farmer organisations.
It will also update and refine fertilizer recommendations for maize and grain legumes and monitor and assess impacts of the integrated soil fertility management technologies on productivity of small-scale agriculture and livelihoods of rural communities.
The three-year project is being funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), an
International organisation. It is being implemented in collaboration with the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-Ghana).
Farmers from eleven districts in the Northern, five in the Upper West and four in the Upper East regions are to benefit from the project.
In a speech read on his behalf, the northern regional minister, Mr. Moses Mabengba noted that even though the north accounts for 42 percent of the country’s cereal production, it was still plagued with high levels of food insecurity and poverty.
“The main reason is that most of our people are small-scale resource poor farmers who rely mainly on rain fed agriculture to improve their livelihoods under low farm input conditions,” he indicated.
The minister therefore lauded the efforts of all the stakeholders involved in the realisation of the project but urged them to also help in addressing the issues of credit to farmers and access to market.
He said efforts were being made by the government to rehabilitate some broken down dams while constructing new ones at deprived areas. “The government has also pledged to continue with its policy on fertiliser subsidy that is in excess of 14 Million US Dollars for 2010” Mr. Mabengba added.
The project manager, Dr. Mathias Fosu said the programme will promote the use of organic and inorganic fertilizers in addition to other locally adapted soil fertility measures.
“We will reach about 120,000 farmers in about 225 villages with information on integrated soil fertility management through demonstrations, radio and T.V. documentaries and the production of extension leafless,” he stated.
The manager further expressed hope that, at the end of the project,” Northern Ghana which currently produces only 51 percent of its maize requirement will become net exporter of maize.”
In a speech read on his behalf, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Mr. Joseph Boamah observed that plant nutrients were being removed and lost than were being applied and that it was for this reasons that the government introduced the fertilizer subsidy programme in 2008.
The Director-General of the CSIR-Ghana, Dr. Abdulai Salifu commended scientists of the Institute for their immense efforts at attracting funding to solve the problems of farmers in northern Ghana and the nation at large.
He explained that, SARI was one of the 13 research institutes of the CSIR-Ghana and that his outfit remained the largest scientific research organisation in the country.
Dr. Salifu further indicated that, their research institutes are stationed in most parts of the country each of which has a mandate to cover specialised areas of importance for growth and development of the nation.
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