Central Region: 54 Farmers equipped with climate-resilient farming technology

Fifty-four farmers from in and around Akotokyir in the Cape Coast Metropolis have received knowledge in climate-resilient farming technology for enhanced yields.

The farmers were also introduced to disease resistant maize varieties which are also resilient to harsh climate.

The farmers were also introduced to the "neem technology" where powder from Neem leaves is applied to the soil before planting the potatoes to prevent nematodes from attacking the potatoes.

Farmers were taught how to apply the neem leaf powder in planting the potatoes and other crops to obtain the best yields.

They were also educated on intercrop farming and onion boundary techniques.

The Cape Coast Metropolitan Crops Officer, Ernestina Assan, said maize varieties such as the Opeaburo, Denbea, Konjoware and Honampa were all bio-fortified varieties with a disease resistance character, to ensure farmers got the most from their farms and fortified food for their families and for sale.

She said the farmers were also schooled on the properties of the new purple-fleshed sweet potato, and were encouraged to plant it for consumption and for sale, in addition to the highly nutritious orange-fleshed sweet potato.

Climate change, food security

She observed that the changing climate required that farmers were prepared with new technologies that would protect their farm investments for enhanced yields while improving family health and incomes.  

A farmer for more than a decade, Mary Odoom said the impact of climate change on her farm had been enormous and biting.

"The crops we grow are not able to stand the heat now. The yields are decreasing and so are our incomes. These lessons are invaluable and have come to help us with our farming," she added.

She indicated that to ensure food security, farmers in the country must be educated with appropriate technologies that would help them ensure climate-resilient farming.

Another farmer, Isaac Mensah, said crops depended on the weather and the change in climate had led to failed harvest often leaving the farmers poorer.

He called for irrigation facilities to support effective farming and enhanced yields.

Hope

Another beneficiary, James Kofi Koomson, said the demonstration farms and the success had given farmers a new lease of hope.

"We had lost hope as our yields were continuously decreasing. With this education we are confident about farming again," he said.

The Head of the AICCRA team in the Central Region, Dr Ernestina Narvieh Awarikabey, said the project was to equip farmers to understand the changes in the climate and provide them with varieties that would make them farm profitably.

She said she was optimistic that farmers would leverage the knowledge acquired to ensure they mitigated the impact of climate change on their farms.

A Senior Technical Officer at the Crop Research Institute, Isaac Kwame Frimpong, advised the beneficiary farmers to practise the techniques learnt to maximise their produce.