By Florence Afriyie Mensah
Seidi (Ash), July 02, GNA – Crop farmers in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality, have received knowledge on agroecological practices that are meant to reduce the current challenges militating against increased food crop production.
The awareness created for these farmers would strengthen their capacities, improve livelihoods and add value to the food they produce.
The exercise is under the “Promoting Agroecological Practices for Improved Maize Production and Healthy Environment (PAPISHE) Partnership” which comprises the Crops Research Institute (CRI) under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Center for No-Till Agriculture and the Atwima Nwabiagya South chapter of the National Farmers and Fishermen Award Winners.
It is being funded by the European Commission (EU) and AFD through the ECOWAS Commission under the ECOWAS Agroecology Programme.
Dr Stephen Yeboah, Project Manager, and a Research Scientist at CSIR-CRI taking farmers through the exercise at a demonstration field at Seidi near Nkawie, explained that the partnership would help develop and disseminate demand-led innovations and build capacities of stakeholders for sustainable food crop production and value addition.
He observed that arable land and other production resources were limited, and area expansion for food production was not appropriate or recommended in the spate of urbanization and multiple land uses.
According to him, with extensive urbanization and competition for farmlands, any increase in crop production should be met by increased productivity -improved crop yields per unit area than an increase in cultivated areas.
Dr Yeboah said it was important to create awareness of existing technologies for greater uptake, commercialization of proven technologies, training of agricultural value chain actors and facilitation of engagements with policy to ensure that an appropriate environment was created for wider adoption of innovations.
He took farmers through some agroecological practices at the demonstration site.
These included maize-carnalia relay, maize-cowpea intercropping, climate-smart maize varieties under organic and inorganic fertilizer application, mulching/direct seeding in a live mulch, cover cropping using mucuna, cover cropping using carnavalia and cover cropping using grain legume (cowpea).
Madam Esther Nsiah Asare, a farmer at Sepaase sharing her experience on agroecological practices with the Ghana News Agency, noted that when a demonstration farm was established to teach the farmers she had been spending less on chemical fertilizers, controlled erosion on the farm and kept a moist soil throughout.
She explained that her practices used to be slash and burn which hardened the land and in dry seasons the crops withered and died.
Mr Alex Mensah, another farmer from Seidi said when he received knowledge of these practices, farming had become easier and pointed out that agroecological practices were the way to go and all farmers should embrace them.
Madam Grace Achiaa, MoFA Director for Atwima Nwabiagya North District who had visited the farm with some farmers from her area requested that a demonstration plot be sited in her zone to teach farmers on the need to adopt these technologies to boost their yields.
GNA