Municipal District Assemblies in the Upper East Region have been admonished to inculcate the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) project by World Vision Ghana (WVG) in their medium and long-term plans.
FMNR is a low-cost, simple, sustainable land regeneration practice that communities can use to restore their land, increase their productivity and build resilience relatively quickly and efficiently. Its method involves the selection of shrouds from tree stumps, and pruning them regularly, to improve their growth.
The project was first implemented in the Talensi district of the Upper East Region in 2009 and after some successes were made, it was extended to the Kassena-NanKana West, Bawku West, Garu, Tempane, and Binduri districts with over 400 communities taking part.
Samuel Abasiba, the FMNR Project Manager, at World Vision Ghana said over 2,500 hectares of land in the Talensi district of the Upper East Region that were degraded as a result of natural and human activities have been restored into community forest following the implementation of the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) project by World Vision Ghana (WVG).
He mentioned 4,000 hectares of degraded farmlands in the Talensi were restored since the implementation of the project in 2009. He was speaking during a regional-level advocacy engagement in Bolgatanga.
The day engagement program was organized by projects such as the Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration for Seed (FMNR4SEED), Landscape and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN), and FMNRPLUS projects in the Upper East and Northern regions with partnership from the Forum for National Regeneration (FONAR).
The above projects by World Vision Ghana are aimed at restoring degraded landscapes, building farmers’ resilience, improving soil fertility, increasing food production, enhancing livelihoods, and increasing the income of farmers.
Mr. Abasiba expressed optimism that when the project is scaled up in all districts of the Upper East Region and other parts of the country, Ghana’s quest to attain the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on climate change adaptation and mitigation can be achieved.
“We think that we bring the Municipal and District Chief Executives and Heads of Departments, NGOs, and academia in the Upper East Region to share with them the impact and the expectation is that when they see that land restoration is possible with the FMNR when they go back, they will factor that into their development plans and possibly with time, the whole of the Upper East Region will adopt the FMNR concept and a scale up to other regions”, he added.
The Executive Director of the Forum for Natural Regeneration (FONAR), Sumaila Saaka commended the government for its quest to regreen the environment through the ‘Green Ghana’ policy. Mr. Sumaila however entreated the government to adopt the FMNR concept since that is less expensive to implement and a faster way to grow trees than the ‘Green Ghana’ policy.
Participants were taken on a tour to the FMNR site at Yameriga community to interact with the beneficiary community members for more insights about FMNR practices.
Samuel Bantang, Secretary of the Yameriga FMNR said bushfires were rampant in the forest hitherto the implementation of the project in the community. He thanked World Vision Ghana that the project has not only restored degraded lands in the community but boreholes were drilled to provide safe drinking water for the community members.
District Chief for Bawku West, Tahiru Issahaku Ahmed said the benefits of the project which included the harvest of grass, and animal grazing fields among others are enormous that can give income to the community members.
“Back to my district, I am going to give a very serious approach to this Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration seriously. We have climate change sides where we are supposed to plant trees [but] it is not easy to plant and grow trees but this approach is very easy to give a natural growth to the environment”
The Tempane District Director of Agriculture, Ibrahim Jamaldeen said he hopes to train farmers in the districts about the project with farmers and liaised with the assembly “to replicate the intervention in the district and contribute to reducing the effects of climate change”
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|Bolgatanga|Ghana
