Farmers urged to adopt crop varieties that suit their rainfall pattern

Mr. Huudu Abu, the Upper West Regional Agricultural Officer in charge of Crops, has advised farmers to adopt varieties of crops that suit their rainfall pattern.

He said the rainfall pattern in the northern parts of the country had not been encouraging over the years, adding that this prevented farmers from growing some crops at a particular period in the year.

Mr. Abu made the call during a farmers’ field day at Naha in the Wa East District.

Mr. Huudu said the project dubbed “Feed the Future” is being implemented by MoFA in collaboration with Africa Rising–Ghana with funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

It was launched in January, 2012 and implemented in northern Ghana with partnership from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), MoFA, Seed Producers Association of Ghana (SEEDPAG), University for Development Studies, Ghana Health Services as well as the farmers.

The project is aimed at addressing global hunger and food security issues in sub–Saharan Africa.

The field day saw a demonstration of varieties of maize, early and medium yielding.

Mr. Abu said the extra–early maize variety took 75 days to mature while the early and medium took 85- 90 and 100-105 days respectively to mature.

In all 155 farmers benefited from the project of which 90% expressed interest in the extra early maize variety.

Mr. Abu said the project hopes to transform agricultural systems through sustainable intensification projects in three regions of Africa within of five years.

In Ghana, the project is being implemented in four districts of the Upper West Region namely Wa East, Nadowli, Lawra, and Sissala West districts with five communities benefiting in each district.

Mr. Abu said the districts and communities were chosen based on analysis of cropping systems, poverty, population, area’s development priorities and the potential for successfully improving agricultural productivity.

Mr. Alhassan Sulemana, a representative of the farmers, thanked MoFA and the sponsors for introducing them to new improved seed varieties as well as farming methods to enable them improve on their yields.