The Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) based in Bawku is building the capacity of farmers on good agronomic practices in the Builsa South District. The beneficiary communities in the Builsa South District that are benefitting from the programme implementation are Dalaasa and Naadema.
During a field visit to some demonstration fields in the district, Dr. Julius Yizirgla of the Savanna Agriculture Research Institute commented that the objective of the project is to improve the livelihood of rural communities in the production of crops.
“We are implementing this project which seeks to improve the livelihood of rural communities by establishing sustainable production of crops for beneficiary community members.”
According to Dr. Yizirgla, the project was responding to challenges faced by farmers in the area of crop production and marketing. He added that while the capacity building will help farmers integrate best and modern agronomic practices to produce high yield crops such as Maize and Soyabeans, the entrepreneurial skills will enable them to market their produce.
“We started by going to beneficiary communities and there we were able to identify the challenges some of those farmers were facing in terms of crop production and marketing of their produce. Basically, we noticed that their yield was very low compared to the average yield.”
“So, we realized the need to build their capacity in terms of good agronomic practices and also their entrepreneurial skills when it comes to marketing of their produce.”
The institute through sponsorship from the International Union Of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and in partnership with A.Rocha Ghana, Environmental Protection Agency and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, are implementing a project dubbed ‘’Land Of Opportunities In the Sahel project’’ in some communities in communities in the Upper East and Upper West regions.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Gerard Awombadek Asagi|Ghana
