The Manga Station of CSIR-SARI has hosted 200 participants at their technology park which was established through the support of AMG Ltd.
The participants were made of 180 farmers, 6 District/Municipal Directors of Agriculture, 14 AEAs and field staff of CSIR-SARI.
The participants were drawn from Pusiga, Tempane, Binduri, Bawku West, Garu and Bawku Districts/Municipal, thus 30 farmers, an AEA and a District Director participated from each of the districts/Municipal.
The lead Senior Research Scientist of the team of scientists and technicians who established the Technology Park, Dr. Francis Kusi, acknowledged the support from AMG Ltd that enabled them to present their proven technologies to the end users.
He added that as a research institute, CSIR-SARI have generated a good number of technologies which need to be disseminated to the end users. However, funds to do this remain great constraint to the institute.
Dr. Kusi therefore appeal to other companies and donors to partner with them to help disseminate their technologies to farmers.
Among the technologies introduced to the participants at the park include drip irrigation system designed to suit the dry savannah zone to efficiently utilize the limited water resources to maximize production throughout the long 7 to 8 months dry season.
The other technologies include improved crop varieties of cowpea, maize, soybean and vegetable. Improved agronomic practices and insect pests and diseases management strategies to cultivate the improved crop varieties to increase productivity were also presented to the participants.
Dr. Kusi, encouraged the farmers to adopt these improved practices to augment the Government’s efforts to promote their access to quality improved seeds and fertilizer under the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) programme to further increase food production and productivity in Ghana.
The Agronomist on the team, Dr. Julius Yirzagla, in his interaction with the media, added that low soil productivity due to poor and declining soil fertility is one of the major factors limiting crop yields in Ghana.
Agriculture, through sustainable intensification, presents an opportunity to improve food security and reduce poverty and inequality, provided appropriate fertilizers are adopted.
Despite low and declining soil fertility challenges, low use of fertilizers still predominates the smallholder farming system in Ghana.
Crop production requires a supply of both major and micronutrients. Thus to improve crop performance, there is a need for Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) across the agro-ecological zones.
This calls for site-specific fertilizer recommendations that provide all nutrients in balanced proportions as per the nutrient status of the soil.
Current fertilizer recommendations were developed decades ago and mainly focused on the replenishment of only macronutrients (NPK), mainly through soil application. This is considered blanket fertilizer recommendation, with little or no focus on secondary and micronutrients.
As a result, the concentrations of several micronutrients in grains of crops have declined considerably over the last five decades, negatively affecting nutritional quality and exacerbating malnutrition.
Given the important roles micronutrients play in crop production and human nutrition, non-application of such nutrients is not sustainable while seeking to enhance nutrition-sensitive agriculture.
Dr. Julius, stressed that apart from the quantity and the composition of fertilizers, the mode of nutrient application plays a key role in nutrient uptake by plants.
In terms of production/blending, one of the major challenges is a lack of fertilizer recommendations for specific crops and soils, largely due to weak manufacturer, researcher, and farmer linkages and the presence of poor-quality products (blends) in the system.
In ISFM, there is the need to determine soil physical properties and nutrient contents mainly to determine fertilizer recommendations and to link yield responses to these soil nutrient properties.
Story By: Emmanuel Akayeti
