Akatsi (VR), June 23, GNA-The Department of Agriculture, under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in the Akatsi South Municipality, has held a day’s workshop for some 118 rice farmers and 12 technical Agriculture staff on modern rice cultivation technologies.
It was aimed at empowering farmers to adopt scientific ways of farming to increase productivity instead of recording lower yield outputs due to some factors such as climate change, land litigation, and the high cost of inputs, including fertilizer, weedicides and pesticides.
Mr Charles Grunitzky, the Akatsi South Municipal Director of Agriculture, in an address, indicated the meeting was an important one “to help yield per unit area of land between 7 to 8 Metric tons per hectare as opposed to relatively lower yield outputs from farmers.”
Issues such as the selection of high-yield rice varieties, rice cultivation technologies,
weed management, post-harvest management and insect and disease management, led by scientists and researchers from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)- Crops Research Institute (CRI), were discussed.
Mr Noah Lanyon, KOPIA and CSIR Coordinator, engaged participants on the issues of concern such as the unavailability of fertilizers under the PFJ initiative and the high cost of petroleum, leading to an increase in the cost of transport of goods and services in the farming sector.
Participants were also educated on the need to see farming as a business venture.
Among the farming groups present at the training included, Progressive Rice Farmers Association, Norvisi Rice Farmers Association, Lorlornyo Rice Farmers Association and Mr Kofitsey Martin Nyahe, the Municipal Chief Executive for the area, also in attendance.
Mr Richard Odzor, leader of Norvisi Rice Farmers Association, appealed to stakeholders in the Agriculture sector to put in place prudent measures to mitigate the overburdening of farmers due to the high cost of farm inputs.
The training, held at the Akatsi South Municipal Assembly hall, was spearheaded by the Korean Programmme on International Agriculture (KOPIA) Ghana, CSIR-CRI and Good Neighbours Ghana, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Akatsi South.
All the Agriculture Departments in Ghana according to Mr Grunitzky, have been receiving some sponsorship from the Canadian Government through the Modernising Agriculture in Ghana ( MAG) programme.
Five years after rice production in Akatsi South from the year 2012, over 400 acres were cultivated in 2017 and later doubled in two years in 2019 to over 800 acres in 2021, well over 1, 094.6 ha have been cultivated with a production of over 9,407.8 MT.
Some facilitators present at the training, include Dr Maxwell Asante, Deputy Director, CSIR-CRI, Dr Ebenezer Annan-Afful, CSIR-CRI, Dr Grace Aku Boffrey, CSIR-CRI, Dr Kofi Frimpong Anin, Mr Atta Aidoo, CRI and Dr Choong-Hoe Kim, KOPIA Director.
GNA