Beneficiary farmers receiving the equipment in Salaga
SEND-Ghana and partners have supported smallholder farmers in the Eastern corridor and East Gonja district of the Savannah region with technology and equipment to help improve their farming activities.
Some of the items include multi-purpose planters, Tarpaulins, Solar/rechargeable knapsack sprayers, tricycles among others.
SEND-Ghana has initiated the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Program(4R NSP) funded by Global Affair Canada to enhance soil fertility for improved agricultural yields and income by incorporating important gender and climate resilience strategies.
The 4R Nutrient Stewardship Program(4R NSP) believes that adopting small equipment technology will help ease farmers’ workload on their farms while reducing post-harvest lospost-harvesting issues associated with transporting their produce from the farm to the various communities and market centres.
Country Director of CDF Canada, Christiana Yakubu, said the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Program will ensure that women get access to resources to empower them.
“If we are able to empower women, we will achieve all the 17 Sustainable Developmental Goals so under this program we are keen in making sure that women are actively participating in terms of accessing technology, information, resources to ensure that women and men are driving the development of the household.”
She said the project is being implemented in collaboration with cooperatives to sustain the project in the various districts.
The Country Director of CDF Canada, however, lamented about the use of farmlands for developmental purposes adding that farmers nowadays have less land to cultivate.
“ The population is growing and farmers cannot expand because there are multiple demands for land and it, therefore, means that the only way that can increase our food production is by intensification.”
The 4R Project Manager, Bashiru Jumah said the project will improve the socio-economic well-being of about 30,000 poor and vulnerable smallholder farmers in the project districts particularly women through agricultural productivity and sustainability.
He disclosed that the project is being implemented in 130 communities across four(4) districts namely East Gonja, Nanumba North, Nanumba South, and Kpandai.
According to him, in the 2020 production season, 24 maize Nutrients Omission Trials (NOTs),12 rice NOTs, 24 groundnut learning sites, and 24 maize learning sites were established for training and outreach adding that 2,313 smallholder farmers were trained on 4R best management practices.
Mr Jumah encouraged the beneficiaries to use the equipment and technology productively for the intended purpose through proper care and maintenance to ensure durability.
The Northern Regional Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), Hajia Hawa Musah, lamented about the extension officer farmer ratio saying the ratio currently is 1 extension officer to 1,500 farmers and called for more support to the ministry.
She encouraged farmers to patronize the warehouses located in their various districts to store their farm produce.
“ Those warehouses are meant for you our farmers to store your farm produce and sell them at the right time so I want to encourage you to take advantage of the warehouses in your various districts.”
FROM Eric Kombat, Salaga