The Namongnani Farmer groups in the Saboba District have expressed satisfaction at the various farming technologies introduced to them by the Feed the Future USAID Agriculture Technology Transfer Project (FTF-USAID-ATT).
They said through the demonstration of the FTF-USAID-ATT project, most members of the group were taken through the right process of fertilizer application, improved maize planting process as well as weeds control.
Madam Salamatu Grondo, a member of the group speaking at a “Green Field Day” programme held at Namongbani in the Saboba District on Tuesday was hopeful her yield for the year would be doubled because of the demonstration exercise.
She observed that the old seed variety that the farmers were planting was not doing well as compared to the new varieties introduced by the FTF-USAID-ATT project, and appealed to the project coordinators to make the new seed variety available for farmers to use in the next farming season.
Mr Shaibu Azumah Baanni, Training Advisor of FTF-USAID-ATT, said the project sought to address some of the key constraints which affects agricultural productivity and growth among small holder farmers.
He said a total of 122 demonstration farms had been established to give practical training to farmers and make new agricultural technologies readily available for application and adoption.
“We are engaging about 20,000 farmers in all these demonstration farms to support both dry and rainy seasons farming,” he said.
Mr Baanni explained to the farmers that despite the advent of climate change, they could still increase yield if they planted the hybrid maize varieties.
He said the new varieties had a very high germination and early maturity rate, and could resist disease and insect infestations than the local varieties.
“Out of 100 seeds, at least 96 will germinate, so it should be planted no more than one seed per hole and with proper management farmers will get high yield,” he said.
Mr Baanni said the project, which is currently being implemented in 23 districts of the Northern Region, and would be extended to Northern Volta and parts of the Brong Ahafo Regions in 2015.
The FTF-USAID-ATT is a five-year project, which seeks to increase the availability of appropriate and affordable farming technologies to sustainably improve the competitiveness of maize, rice and soya value-chains in Northern Ghana through public private partnership.
Source: GNA