Pusiga district records increase in yields of staple crops

The Pusiga District Department of Agriculture has recorded a significant increase in the yields of staple crops through the successful implementation of the Planting for Food and Jobs and the one Village, one dam policies in the area.

Many farmers in the area who benefited from the subsidised farm inputs increased production and got the services of agricultural extension officers to educate and supervise them on good farming practices.

The farmers cultivated maize, rice, onion, pepper, soya beans and tomatoes and harvested better yields than previous years.

The Pusiga District Chief Executive (DCE), Zubeiru Abdulai, said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Pusiga, after the harvest period.

Records from the Agriculture Department show that in 2017, 14,212.90 metric tonnes of maize, 1,000 metric tonnes of Rice and 3,137.70 metric tonnes of Soya Beans were harvested, while in 2018, 14,400.90 metric tonnes of maize, 1,040.1 metric tonnes of Rice and 3,140 metric tonnes of Soya bean were harvested.

In 2019 maize recorded 18,401.15 metric tonnes, rice 1,100 metric tonnes and soya bean 3,200 metric tonnes.

Mr Abdulai said in order to increase supervision and monitoring of farmers in the district, government provided a Nissan Pick-Up and 13 new motorbikes to enable the extension officers to get to the farmers in remote areas of the district.

Touching on the One Village, One Dam (1V1D) projects, he said out of the 10 dams awarded for construction, eight were completed in the Terrago, Kultamsie, Tesbgego, Kulpelgo and Merantinga, Koose, Kulungugu and Kolnaba communities and were in use to provide farmers with access to water for all year round farming, starting from the 2019/2020 dry season.

He said livestock in the communities did not have to go far in search of water and that also minimised stealing.

Mr Abdulai said the 1,000 metric tonnes warehouse, constructed under the one district, one warehouse policy was about 90 per cent complete and would reduce post-harvest loses and create access for the storage of excess farm produce.