Wa, Dec. 10, GNA – The German Development Cooperation (GIZ)-Resilience Against Climate Change (REACH) project has been earmarked to develop the Babile Agricultural Research Station in the Lawra Municipality into a Conservation Agricultural (CA) Centre of Excellence as part of measures to promote adoption of the CA technology.
The REACH project has furnished the Babile and Damongo Agriculture Stations with CA tillage equipment with a 15-acre CA trial plot set-up at the Babile Agric Research Station to promote the different CA technologies available.
Mr Simon Kunyagna, the Deputy Project Manager of the GIZ-RREACH project, announced this at a media engagement workshop in Wa on Wednesday.
It was to create media awareness of the activities of the GIZ-REACH project and to discuss effective ways through which the media could support the project in improving its visibility and widening its audiences.
Journalists and other media practitioners in the Upper West and Savannah Regions attended the workshop, which was organised by the GIZ-REACH project.
“The REACH project seeks primarily to address the consequences of climate change on rural livelihoods in the savannah ecological zone.
“Since its inception in 2019, the project has undertaken a series of activities aimed at boosting the rural economy and improving rural income,” he explained.
Mr Kunyagna added that a consolidated CA training manual had been developed with advanced plans in place for a programme on CA to be thought at the Damango Agricultural College in the Savannah Region.
“Four tractors, five pneumatic planters, eleven rippers and 20 jab planters have been procured to promote CA mechanization in the Joint Project Area (JPA), comprising all eleven districts of the Upper West region as well as the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba and North Gonja districts in the Savannah region, and Mamprugu-Moagduri in the North East region.
“Thirty-five Agriculture Extension Agents (AEAs) have been trained on Conservation Agriculture and agro-forestry to facilitate their adoption and practice at the household and community levels,” he added.
In a presentation, Mr Mohammed Jamaldeen Gariba, the Technical Advisor, Monitoring and Evaluation of the REACH project, noted that as part of efforts to consolidate the adoption of CA, the project had trained 1,785 farmers on the principles of CA with 57 per cent of them being women.
Other achievements of the project are the establishment of Nature Clubs in six basic schools, planting of about 28,000 tree seedlings in 18 communities within the JPA and training of 20 Agricultural extension Agents in CA among others.
He said the project had also, among others, trained 93 members of the District Planning and Coordinating Units in 14 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in IT/GIS to help in the medium-term development planning process.
Mr Emmanuel Maaweh Tanga, the Communications Officer of REACH, took participants through effective tools for media reporting on climate change, including Foresight, Social Math and Nudging communication tools.
GNA