SOIL infertility remains the major constraint to sustainable agricultural production in northern Ghana.
Soil organic matter influences the physical and chemical properties of soil, as well as the availability of nutrients for microbial and successful plant growth.
However, the levels of soil organic matter in northern Ghana are disproportionately low. While the soil organic matter content of agricultural top soil is usually in the range of 0.1 to six per cent, the organic matter content in the north averages less than one per cent.
This prevailing situation has largely been attributed to human-induced degradation activities such as extensive soil cultivation, soil erosion, over-grazing, land clearing and desertification.
The Director-General of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-Ghana), Dr Abdulai Salifu, who disclosed this in Tamale, therefore, stated that “any strategy that seeks to turn around the general soil infertility constraint in the north into a resource must be welcome news for our agricultural policy makers and farmers”.
He was speaking at the inauguration of a $1.54 million project aimed at increasing maize-legume production through up scaling of proven integrated soil fertility management technologies and the strengthening of farmer organisations.
The three-year project is 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).
Dr Salifu expressed confidence in the successful implantation of the project, stressing that “it has been our business in the CSIR to deliver even against the backdrop of abysmal low research funding due to lack of commitment”.
He stated that northern Ghana could reclaim its position as the bread basket of the country if only there was a political will for decisive action by providing the necessary resources needed.
“Indeed currently, nearly 80 per cent of the national grain production and approximately 60 per cent of the national legumes and some sizeable amount of root crops are grown in the north,” the director-general stated.
Dr Salifu further said the rainy season in normal times allowed for a growing period of 150-160 days in the Upper East Region and 180-200 days in the Upper West and Northern regions.
He, however, expressed concern about low funding for science and technology and that the government’s investment in that sector was well below the one per cent GDP threshold recommended in the Lagos Plan of Action.
Dr Salifu reminded the people that a country’s level of technology largely determined its competitiveness in the globalised world.
In a speech read on his behalf, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Mr Joseph Boamah, observed that the average fertiliser application by Ghanaian farmers, eight kilogrammes per hectare of land, was very low as compared to the recommended African Union proposed average of 50 kilogrammes per hectare of land to improve productivity and production in the African sub-region.
He said it was for that reason that the government introduced the fertiliser subsidy programme in 2008 for sustainable national food security.
According to the director, a total of 43,176.75 metric tonnes constituting 863,535 bags of compound and nitrogen fertilisers were subsidised to the tune of GH¢20 million between July and December, 2008.
Mr Boamah added that last year, the coupon system was used again in subsidising 72,748.75 metric tonnes, thus 454,975 bags of fertiliser at a cost of GH¢32,250,680 to the government.
On the problems associated with the distribution system, he said “we are putting the necessary institutions and processes in place to ensure successful implementation of the programme”.
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