One day two potatos, who were best friends, were walking together down the street. They stepped off the curb and a speeding car came around the corner and ran one of them over. The uninjured potato called 911 and helped his i ... read full comment
One day two potatos, who were best friends, were walking together down the street. They stepped off the curb and a speeding car came around the corner and ran one of them over. The uninjured potato called 911 and helped his injured friend as best he was able. The injured potato was taken to emergency at the hospital and rushed into surgery. After a long and agonizing wait, the doctor finally appeared. He told the uninjured potato, "I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is that your friend is going to pull through." "The bad news is that he's going to be a vegetable for the rest of his life".
Akonta Alex Illi, Agric engineer 9 years ago
Not at all.
Focus on BREADFRUIT tree cultivation and improved fallows with MUCUNA beans as groundcover plants to stop the excessive "slash & burn"-soil degradation.
Breadfruit tree fruits taste just as well or better co ... read full comment
Not at all.
Focus on BREADFRUIT tree cultivation and improved fallows with MUCUNA beans as groundcover plants to stop the excessive "slash & burn"-soil degradation.
Breadfruit tree fruits taste just as well or better compared to the roots & tubers, Ghanaians have witnessed after tasting them. They are the only large starch crop from trees. The large round fruits the size of a rugby ball can be boiled or roasted or fried or dried as chips/crisps and even processed into flour.
The yield of the newly discovered natural varieties (by researcher Dr.Ragone) propagated by GlobalBreadfruit is as high as with the highest root and tuber yields.
They bore fruit in 1983, when roots and tubers failed in many areas. Extremely drought resistant. Very hardy and reliable trees.
On their native islands, inhabitants are usually big and strong and well nurtured (even fat), simply because of this abundant staple food.
Bearing fruit after 2-3 years on average, fully after 5 years. They become big as medium mango trees. Produce fruits abundantly for 50, 100 years or more.
No weeding work and nearly no pesticide and fertilizer expenses after establishment.
Sell at ~2GhC per fruit, up to 200 fruits per tree per year. Highly sought after. Those few owners in Ghana of a traditional breadfruit tree often have waiting lists to sell them, as if people stand in line to buy them, once they've tasted them. Good for the stomach. Satisfying, rich taste and texture.
The texture is like Cassava, Yam, Nkamfuo, potatoes. The taste is excellent, as any Ghanaian having tried them has witnessed.
Highly pest resistant trees, grow on nearly every soil. In the southern humid and semi-arid transitional zones.
10$ per tree, after that, they can be further freely propagated from root cuttings and via air-layering on the farm.
Government is well advised to facilitate bulk importation for the farmers, and plant examples in every region for the farmers to see.
Government should then erect a Breadfruit flour processing plant or enable entrepreneurs to do so.
Cash-crop for the farmers. Secures food sovereignty/autarky.
1 tree is about enough to feed one person per year, when mature.
You can inspect them at Bonsu, where they were planted in 2011.
They are superior to the few traditional Breadfruit varieties introduced to Ghana in the 19th century by missionaries. Nearly double yielding compared to them.
Yields in the range of the highest yielding tuber crops, as measured in dry weight per acre.
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Planting Mucuna-beans ("edua appiah", "nsuro ewiah" in Twi) under the trees as ground-cover eliminates weeds and fertilizes the soil via nitrogen fixation. Mucuna beans cover and smother any weeds fast, and they "don't fear the sun". They get big fast without fertilisers and don't need pesticides as other beans do. The big beans are easy to plant and propagate. Only ~one time weeding at the beginning, then the "elephant grass" troubling so many farmers is gone.
In every technologically advanced country, sown fallows are used instead of wild fallows. Wild fallows and burning them after 6-10 years have been traditional nearly worldwide. But by now, the population density is too high - they burn every place nearly every year. After 5-10 years, this constant burning will degrade the soils into uselessness and infertility, even when using mineral fertilizers, because the carbon and other nutrients in the soil will go nearly completely missing. Gone with the smoke and the erosion resulting from the scorched soil lying bare.
The fires enable the "elephant grasses" to spread everywhere, because they regenerate the fastest after fires. Mucuna beans will stop all these problems.
Successively, tephrosia and gliricidia can be introduced onto the farms, e.g. between the crop rows (e.g. for maize), as fast growing, N2-fixating fertilizer trees, that are constantly coppiced with the cutlass to provide nutrient-rich, weed-suppressing mulch anytime they produce new leaves.
Especially in the North and transitional zone "Faidherbia albida" trees (EVERGREEN AGRICULTURE) are optimal for farming. They loose their leaves (best fertilizer) in the farming season (when the rains start). Maize under Faidherbia has scientifically shown yields raised by up too 280% compared to unfertilized samples.
For subsistence farmers, FERTILIZER MICRODOSING is also the way to go to boost crops enormously cheaply.
Further information: Websearch "Africa's Breadfruit Revolution", "Global Breadfruit", "Improved Fallow + Tephrosia OR Gliricidia", "Evergreen Agriculture", Improved "Zai Pit System", "Vetiver System", "Stone Gully Plugs", "Fertilizer Microdosing" for a start.
I'm not financially involved with any of these organisations or persons, I'm just an Agric Engineer living in Ghana and finding solutions to the grave problems described above.
Get up-to-date, help small-scale farmers, the backbone of Ghanaian economy, as well as larger farmers.
Even subsistence farmers don't need any special tools to practice these efficient, labour-reducing methods.
May Ghana prosper!
JACOB 9 years ago
NOTHING ELSE WILL MATTER IS THESE CRITICAL ISSUES ARE NOT LOOK INTO BY GHANA. ENVIRONMENTAL DAMANGES TO GHANA'S WATERS, SOIL FULL OF CHEMICALS, WHILES EUROPEANS FARMERS ARE RECEIVING SUBSIDIES FOR ORGANIC FARMING IS VERY CRIT ... read full comment
NOTHING ELSE WILL MATTER IS THESE CRITICAL ISSUES ARE NOT LOOK INTO BY GHANA. ENVIRONMENTAL DAMANGES TO GHANA'S WATERS, SOIL FULL OF CHEMICALS, WHILES EUROPEANS FARMERS ARE RECEIVING SUBSIDIES FOR ORGANIC FARMING IS VERY CRITICAL. SANITATION EDUCATION, RENEWABLE ENERGY IS KEY SINCE THE SUN SOLAR IS ALL YEAR ROUND
The mask 9 years ago
What if a country hasn't got a comparative advantage in any sector? WTO won't work in our favor.
What if a country hasn't got a comparative advantage in any sector? WTO won't work in our favor.
Leonard 9 years ago
I think we do not look at the far end of our produce. One we need to analyze our land and soil before we start planting. Course in north America they do check and analyze the soil before growing their crops, and this give the ... read full comment
I think we do not look at the far end of our produce. One we need to analyze our land and soil before we start planting. Course in north America they do check and analyze the soil before growing their crops, and this give then the idea of which crop can be grown in a setting area. In that manner it saves time instead of growing the crop before realizing that the crops are not growing. Also, reading the article it say we have problem transporting produce, and we have problem transporting why are we calling for help if we can't transport it why grow.In my opinion we should first fix our transportation problems then we can tackle agricultural system.
One day two potatos, who were best friends, were walking together down the street. They stepped off the curb and a speeding car came around the corner and ran one of them over. The uninjured potato called 911 and helped his i ...
read full comment
Not at all.
Focus on BREADFRUIT tree cultivation and improved fallows with MUCUNA beans as groundcover plants to stop the excessive "slash & burn"-soil degradation.
Breadfruit tree fruits taste just as well or better co ...
read full comment
NOTHING ELSE WILL MATTER IS THESE CRITICAL ISSUES ARE NOT LOOK INTO BY GHANA. ENVIRONMENTAL DAMANGES TO GHANA'S WATERS, SOIL FULL OF CHEMICALS, WHILES EUROPEANS FARMERS ARE RECEIVING SUBSIDIES FOR ORGANIC FARMING IS VERY CRIT ...
read full comment
What if a country hasn't got a comparative advantage in any sector? WTO won't work in our favor.
I think we do not look at the far end of our produce. One we need to analyze our land and soil before we start planting. Course in north America they do check and analyze the soil before growing their crops, and this give the ...
read full comment