A GNA feature by Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Kata (NE/R), Sept. 23, GNA – For Abdul-Rauf Mahamadu, a smallholder farmer at Kata in the West Mamprusi Municipality, farming was once a constant struggle with rising input costs, pest infestation and uncertain returns from his two-acre farmland.
Like many farmers in the area, he depended on chemical fertilisers, herbicides, ploughing, weeding and other inputs to produce food for his family, often with little left from the harvest.
He recalled that cultivating an acre required two bags of NPK fertiliser and one bag of ammonia, in addition to expenditure on chemicals, ploughing and other inputs.
Two bags of NPK fertiliser cost about GH¢1,000, while a bag of ammonia cost about GH¢300. He also spent about GH¢40 on pre-planting chemicals, GH¢70 on weedicide, GH¢75 on insecticide and GH¢40 on ploughing.
When the cost of seed and other inputs was added, he said a farmer could spend a substantial amount and still harvest only about five or six bags from an acre.
From costly inputs to low-cost farming
Today, however, Mr Mahamadu has adopted organic and indigenous farming practices, cutting production costs, improving soil health and building resilience to climate-related challenges on his maize and soybean farms.
The shift is being supported by the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organisation (NABOCADO) under its Strengthening of Smallholder Farmers’ Resilience towards a Changing Climate and Promotion of Environmentally Friendly Agriculture in the Diocese of Navrongo-Bolgatanga (SCRAS) Project.
Funded by Misereor and Bistum Münster of Germany, the project is being implemented in six districts: Kassena-Nankana West, Builsa South, Bongo, West Mamprusi, Nabdam and Talensi.
It enables farmers to produce compost from locally available materials and adopt practices such as crop rotation, zero tillage, mulching, intercropping and the use of plant-based products to manage pests.
The practices are helping some farmers reduce their dependence on chemical fertilisers and pesticides while improving their ability to cope with erratic rainfall, soil degradation and pests such as striga.
Currently, many smallholder farmers in parts of the Upper East and North East regions are increasingly turning to organic and environmentally friendly farming practices to reduce production costs, improve soil health and sustain crop yields amid rising input costs and climate-related challenges.
Mr Mahamadu said composting, zero tillage and crop rotation had transformed his farming practices and improved yields.
He said farmers previously depended heavily on chemical fertilisers and other agrochemicals, which increased production costs and, in his view, contributed to soil deterioration.
“With the compost, we haven’t spent anything except the compost. We haven’t bought anything. Just compost, and we get more than those who do inorganic fertiliser.
“Before we started this demonstration, we were not able to know how to use compost. Because of the training, we know how to use compost, zero tilling and planting without ploughing,” he said.
Compost brings new life to degraded soils
Mr Mahamadu said compost had not only reduced his expenditure but also improved the condition and appearance of his crops.
He said the organic material was prepared from locally available farm residues and other materials, enabling farmers to fertilise their fields without purchasing expensive chemical fertilisers.
The approach, he said, was particularly useful for smallholder farmers who struggled to raise enough money to buy agricultural inputs at the beginning of each farming season.
Crop rotation tackles striga infestation
Mr Mahamadu said crop rotation had also helped him manage maize and soybean production, explaining that he cultivated maize on a particular portion of land the previous year and rotated it with soybean in the current season.
The practice, he said, had helped reduce striga infestation on his farm.
“For now, as we are using compost, there is no striga on our farm. Before then, striga was disturbing the farms because of the fertiliser we had been using,” he said.
Mulching helps farmers withstand drought
At Nkuzesi in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region, farmers are also adopting practices including zai pits, compost application, grass mulching and intercropping to improve production.
Ms Talata Naaya, a maize and hot pepper farmer, said the practices had reduced the need to hire labour for planting and weeding.
She said farmers previously depended on labour from neighbouring communities, but the new methods allowed them to plant in rows and manage weeds more effectively.
The practices also helped conserve soil moisture and moderate soil temperature during dry periods, she said.
Ms Naaya said the methods were particularly important as farmers faced increasing difficulty securing labour for farm activities.
Intercropping boosts household food security
Mr Yin Bugmah, another farmer at Nkuzesi, said he had combined maize with cowpea, grass mulching and liquid manure produced from poultry droppings.
He said the liquid manure, after being properly prepared and diluted, was applied to individual maize plants to provide nutrients and support their growth.
Intercropping also provided households with different sources of food, including maize and cowpea, thereby contributing to food security, he said.
Mr Bugmah said the approach enabled farmers to obtain different food crops from the same farming system rather than depending entirely on one crop.
Ms Assibi Tii, another farmer at Nkuzesi, said she had incorporated soybean and pepper into her farming activities.
She said mulching had helped reduce weed growth, retain moisture and moderate soil temperature.
“These practices are good because you don’t spend money in buying fertiliser. We have been taught how to do composting and use that one to fertilise our fields and get the best results, and we are happy,” she said.
Local innovations reduce dependence on agrochemicals
Mr Dominic Avea Aniah, Director of Livelihood and Agriculture Programme at NABOCADO, said the SCRAS Project was designed to help smallholder farmers produce sustainably without relying heavily on external agricultural inputs.
He said the organisation trained farmers to produce compost from farm residues and livestock droppings while encouraging the integration of cereals and legumes to improve soil fertility.
“Crop rotation helps to reduce the incidence of certain weeds and pests,” he said.
Mr Aniah explained that rotating maize with soybean could help suppress striga because the parasite could not thrive when the cereal host was replaced with a legume.
He said NABOCADO also promoted locally available plant-based products to control pests and diseases and improve soil fertility.
Mr Aniah said the project had reached more than 5,000 smallholder farmers, including women, across the beneficiary communities.
The organic practices were particularly economical for smallholder farmers because they could produce compost and other inputs from materials available within their communities, he said.
“When you apply compost very well, the plant will not take all the nutrients at once. It releases them gradually,” he said.
Mr Aniah said NABOCADO also supported farmers to develop local innovations using materials available in their communities to control pests, improve soil fertility and reduce post-harvest losses.
He said the project encouraged farmers to use plant-based products as alternatives to commercially purchased chemicals, adding that such practices became particularly valuable when agricultural input prices increased sharply.
Farmers who had prepared compost and other locally available inputs were better placed to continue farming when external inputs became expensive or difficult to obtain, he said.
Mr Aniah said the approach did not necessarily seek to produce the maximum possible yield in a single season but aimed at sustainable production while preserving the productive capacity of the soil.
Sustainable agriculture records measurable gains
Dr Michael Ayamga, Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability Learning Coordinator at NABOCADO, said the organisation had worked with about 7,200 farmers across six districts and 16 rural communities.
He said 51.1 per cent of the farmers had comprehensively adopted the sustainable agricultural practices being promoted, defined as the continuous adoption of composting and at least two other practices.
Dr Ayamga said adoption of the practices had contributed to a 13 per cent increase in yields of targeted crops, including millet, sorghum, beans and groundnut.
The project was targeting a 15 per cent increase and expected the gains to improve as more farmers adopted and consistently practised sustainable agriculture, he said.
He said the project had also promoted local innovations in post-harvest management, resulting in a reported 64 per cent reduction in post-harvest losses associated with storage.
About 2,580 women had also been engaged in livelihood and income-generating activities, including livestock, small ruminants and guinea fowl rearing, as part of efforts to diversify household incomes and strengthen resilience to climate-related shocks, he added.
Dr Ayamga said 26 communities across the six districts had developed community climate change adaptation action plans to identify local climate hazards and determine practical measures to reduce their effects.
The plans were helping communities implement adaptation and mitigation measures, including tree planting and sustainable agricultural practices, he said.
Demonstration farms become learning centres
Dr Ayamga said the project was designed as a knowledge-based intervention rather than an input-driven programme, with demonstration farms serving as learning centres where farmers could observe and adopt sustainable practices.
He said the project introduced farmers to sustainable agriculture practices, climate change adaptation and mitigation activities, as well as women’s enterprise development.
NABOCADO had also established demonstration farms where farmers could observe how different sustainable practices worked before adopting them on their own farms, he said.
Dr Ayamga said NABOCADO had worked in Bongo and Talensi since 2011 and was exiting those communities in 2026, while its interventions in Builsa South and West Mamprusi, which began in 2017, were scheduled to end in 2027.
He said communities that had adopted the practices were increasingly serving as learning centres for farmers from other areas.
GNA
Edited by Caesar Abagali/Audrey Dekalu
Writer: Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Writer’s email: [email protected]