The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) has donated farm implements to two agricultural research and training institutions in northern Ghana as part of efforts to promote Conservation Agriculture (CA).
The two institutions – Babile Agricultural Research Station (BARS) in Babile in the Lawra Municipality of the Upper West Region, and the Damango Agricultural College (DAC) in Damango in the Savannah Region – received a crimper and micro tractor each.
The intervention was under the European Union (EU) and German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation (MBZ) co-funded Resilient Against Climate Change (REACH) project, a component of the EU-Ghana Agriculture Programme (EU-GAP).
It was to offer practical training to students of the DAC on CA and practical CA demonstration experience to farmers around the BARS area.
Addressing stakeholders at a brief ceremony to hand over the items, Mr Mathias Berthold, the REACH project Manager, said CA had become the major approach in promoting sustainable farming practices.
He said mechanisation played an integral part in CA implementation while knowledge transfer and practical demonstration were also important in fostering its adoption.
“These valuable tools hold immense value in supporting the two institutions in training and demonstrating Conservation Agriculture practices.
It will also serve as essential tools in the learning journey of our extension agents and farmers, enabling them to embrace sustainable farming methods”, Mr Berthold explained.
Three push planters and a Chisel/Disk Combo had also been for use by the REACH project to provide mechanisation services to farmers through other partners.
Mr Emmanuel Sasu Yeboah, the Upper West Regional Director of Agriculture, said the REACH project had impacted farmers with knowledge in CA and said CA was important in the northern sector.
He explained that crops produced through CA had a higher yield potential than conventional farming with the use of a plough.
“In our environment here, the way bushfire rages through our fields, we must come back to conservation agriculture.
In the southern part, they weed, they don’t burn and then they plant through and the results are always fantastic, but here most of the time we finish and then we allow bushfire to go through which is actually not helping at all”, Mr Yeboah explained.
Mr Dangana Mahama, the Manager of the BARS, said the station desired to be known globally as a centre that championed CA and considering the rate of climate change and the changing soil ecology and emissions, there was a need for change in agricultural practices and CA which the REACH project was promoting was appropriate.
Mr Mohammed Nuhu Adam, the Principal of the DAC, said the equipment would enable them provide practical CA training to the students coming to the college as CA teaching at the school was theoretical.
