Savelugu (N/R), June 23, GNA-Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), has supported some farmers in five communities within the Savelugu Municipality to build mud silos to store their grains against post-harvest losses.
The support, which begun in 2018 was done in partnership with the African Biodiversity Network (ABN), with funding support from Bread for the World (BftW).
It was part of the RAINS’s SEWOH project aimed at preserving best practices and learning agro-ecology.
The farmers were drawn from Yilikpani, Langa, Yiwogu, Yizegu and Tindang communities.
Mr Mohammed Kamel Damma, Project Officer at RAINS, explained that the project also focused on ensuring food sovereignty and improved livelihoods in rural communities through security the capacities of indigenes to save and preserve biodiversity, through a Community Seed and Knowledge (CSK) initiative.
He said when his organisation started its three-and-a-half year project in the communities, it identified that a greater percentage of maize and other grains stored by farmers in their normal method got spoiled rapidly, hence the need to offer technical assistance to them to put up the structure.
“We offered technical advice to the farmers and educated them on the need to maximize the use of local storage materials so as to help them reduce post-harvest losses”, he said.
Mr Damma encouraged other farmers to take advantage of the abundance of local materials to build local storage facilities at zero cost, adding “it helps to prolong the lifespan of grains”.
Madam Alhassan Azara, a beneficiary from Yilikpani community, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that before the introduction of the mud silos to them by RAINS, she was losing some percentage of her maize stored in sacks, however, ”With the new facility, I can now store my maize and sell it later at a higher price.”
Other farmers said the facility had helped them to store enough viable seeds for the next farming season, and were confident that it will go a long way to improve on their living standards.
GNA