‘Adopt new technologies to increase yield’

Mr Issifu Mohamed Pangabu, former Member of Parliament (MP) for Ejura-Sekyeredumasi, has asked farmers to embrace new technologies in their operations to increase their yields and incomes.

He said most farmers were indigent, because they lacked technical knowledge and were also not using improved quality and high-yielding crop varieties on their farms.

Mr Pangabu, a renowned commercial farmer in the Ejura-Sekyeredumasi Municipality, told the Ghana News Agency during a visit to his farm that, adoption of new technologies was the only way to go, to increase yield per-acre and incomes in view of the climatic changes and pressure on limited land space.

This will also boost food production and tackle food insecurity in the country.

Mr Pangabu, who is the owner of the Pee Farms at Ejura, is currently multiplying the hybrid maize seed and other Open Pollinated Varieties (OPVs) for distribution to farmers under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership (SSTP).

The project seeks to increase the production and dissemination of high quality certified seeds of improved varieties of maize and soybeans, to small-holder farmers in the Ejura-Sekyeredumasi, Kintampo Municipal, Kintampo South and Atebubu-Amantin districts.

The aim is to increase the yield per acre of the beneficiary farmers, improve their incomes and enhance their living standards and that of their dependants.

Pee Farms has currently planted about 40 acres of hybrid maize seeds, 110 acres of OPVs and 120 hectares of soybeans to raise 180 metric tonnes of seed maize and 85 metric tonnes of soyabeans for distribution to over 360 farmers from the beneficiary districts.

Mr Pangabu commended the USAID for the initiative to support small-holder farmers to adopt the use of improved and high yielding crop varieties to increase their yields and incomes.

He disclosed that the project would indirectly benefit about 320,000 people in the area.