More Sorghum expected this year

Wa, Oct 14, GNA - About 800 metric tonnes of high

grade Sorghum will be produced on more than 1,000

hectares of land that has already been planted this year, under the Sorghum Value chain Development

Project initiated by Techno Serve. Mr. Stephen Mwin Kaara, Techno Serve Project

Manager, who said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said more that

500 farmers and extension staff had benefited from various

training programmes aimed at enhancing the production of

the crop. He said the aim of these training programmes was to improve yields of Sorghum from the current 0.8 metric tonnes to at least 2.5 metric tonnes per hectare. The Techno Serve Project Manager noted that yields of Sorghum like most crops in the country were very low. While yields of between four and 10 metric tonnes per hectare had been reported in the USA and Argentina, Ghana he said had consistently recorded yields below the global average of 1.5 metric tonnes. Mr. Mwin Kaara explained that it was in that light that the project was giving very serious attention to the training programmes and farmers field schools that had been designed. According to him, they expected this year's projected yield of 800 metric tonnes to triple by the second year of the project. Techno Serve, he said believed that the transformation of Sorghum from a staple to an industrial cash crop as the project sought to do, was an opportunity that would raise poverty alleviation a step towards economic growth in Northern Ghana. He mentioned the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute, Guinness Ghana Breweries Limited, the Common Fund for Commodities and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture as organisations that had supported in the implementation of the project.