Farmers told to adopt new technologies to increase yield

Mr Issifu Mohamed Pangabu, the 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 in the country were indigent because they lacked technical knowledge and were also not using improved quality and high-yielding crop varieties for planting.

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 he said, 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 soybeans 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 said the project would indirectly benefit about 320,000 people in the area.