By Bertha Badu-Agyei
Koforidua, Aug 22, GNA – Farmers have been urged to use organic fertilizers to improve yield as the inorganic fertilizers are currently in short supply.
Mr Obrien Nyarko, the Oti Regional Director of Agriculture and Dean of the Conference of Regional Directors of Agriculture (CORDAG), said organic fertilizers were available and being supplied to farmers under the planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme and sold on the open market.
The organic fertilizers are the same as the inorganic fertilizers, which farmers use commonly, the only difference is in the application.
Mr Nyarko, who was speaking in an interview at a CORDAG Conference in Koforidua said Demonstration farms were being used in some of the districts by extension officers to educate farmers on the use of organic fertilizers.
The Conference was on the theme: “Sustaining Effective Agriculture Extension Delivery in the Decentralized System, Role of the Regional Director.”
Mr Henry Crentsil, the Eastern Regional Director of Agriculture, said the Conference was to devise strategies to sustain the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) programme to ensure the consolidation of the gains.
He said one of the key components of the MAG programme was to support agriculture research and extension services, which are the heartbeat of agriculture, adding “Conference will look at ways to concertedly expand the extension services even as the MAG project ends.”
The MAG is a five-year programme, which began in 2017, and one of its main components is to strengthen extension services as well as improve agriculture productivity, among other objectives and would end in 2022.
GNA