Gudayire, (U/W), Dec. 5, GNA – The Market Oriented Agricultural Programme North West (MOAP-NW) has held a rice production results fair at Gudayire in the Wa East District of the Upper West Region to whip up the interest of more farmers in rice production.
The rice production fair seeks to get community members to see for themselves yields obtained from the community demonstration plot and to encourage them to adopt rice cultivation in the next farming season.
Mr Desmond Twumasi, the Agricultural Expert for MOAP, noted that the fair also presented farmers the opportunity to learn how best to prepare and store produce to preserve the quality of their seeds and grains using the Purdue Improved Crops Storage (PICS) bags and tarpaulins to avoid post-harvest losses at the house level.
He noted that a total of 60 community demonstration plots comprising 15 each for rice, sorghum, soy and groundnuts had been established in 14 districts of the project’s operational zones for the 2020 production season.
Mr Twumasi pointed out that central to the MOAP-NW strategy was helping smallholder farmers increase their productivity, through the establishment of community demonstration plots to train farmers on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPS) with emphasis on the use of improved/certified seeds, bio pesticides such as neem extracts that were environmentally friendly to control pests and post-harvest management.
Mr Twumasi disclosed that MOAP-NW in contributing to addressing the issue of post-harvest losses and minimize aflatoxin infestation at the farmer level, supported all 60 Farmer Based Organisations (FBOs) that participated in the 2020 community seed demonstrations with 60 high quality tarpaulins and 600 PICS storage bags expected to benefit over 2000 smallholder farmers.
Mr Godwin Yaw Opoku, Consultant for the German Development Cooperation (GIZ MOAP-NW) Sorghum and Rice Demonstration Projects, noted that the Upper West Region had a lot of potential to produce rice.
He said they only needed to encourage the farmers by introducing them to new technologies that were readily available for rice production just as MOAP-NW had done.
“We have introduced these farmers to improved seeds that are high yielding and early maturing”, Mr Opoku said and emphasized that if the farmers adopted these technologies, the region would be self-sufficient in rice production.
He noted that this would save market women from traveling to neighbouring Burkina Faso and other far places to buy rice and come and sell to the local people.
“The valleys are there, the production technologies are there and it is only left with us to train the farmers and encourage them to adopt the technologies and increase production”, said the Consultant.
Mr Ali Mohammed, the Lead Farmer, said hitherto, they used to cultivate rice haphazardly, which was contributing to recording low yields, adding the situation was not encouraging enough for them to continue to cultivate rice.
“Through the training, we now know how to cultivate the land, how to sow using improved seeds and how to apply fertilizer and other pesticides as well as how to store our produce to avert any post-harvest losses at the house level”, he said.
Mr Mohammed noted that now more people from the community and its surroundings are encouraged and prepared to go into rice production because of what they saw at the demonstration plots.
He, however, appealed for warehouses to enable them store their produce there instead of storing it in their bedrooms and other unapproved places.
Madam Aminata Ahmed, a beneficiary of the training expressed hope that the technology they have been exposed to would enable them get increase yields to cater for their family needs.
She appealed for similar training in the cultivation of soybean.
The GIZ MOAP-NW is co-founded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in 14 districts.
The aim of MOAP-NW is to enhance the quality in agricultural production to increase incomes and jobs along the seven value chains including sorghum, groundnut, soy, rice, cashew, mango and vegetables.
GNA