Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocese builds capacity of farmers
The Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocese in the Upper East Region has launched a three-year livelihood and advocacy project aimed at building the capacities of selected farmers to enable them to cope with climate change variability as they work to enhance food security.
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The project is in partnership with MISEREOR of Germany and will be implemented in three districts in the Upper East Region and one district in the Northern Region.
The districts are Builsa South, Bongo and Tongo in the Upper East Region and the West Mamprusi District in the Northern Region.
The launch was on the theme, "Strengthening Smallholder Farmer Resilience Towards a Changing Climate", and was attended by the Catholic Bishop of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese, Most Rev. Alfred Agyenta; the Chancellor of Miller Open University, Prof. Bob Miller; and selected farmers and stakeholders from the beneficiary districts.
Project to benefit 64,000 families
In his address at the initiation ceremony which took place at the Catholic Farmer Training Centre at Pusu-Namongo in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, Most Rev. Agyenta said the project sought to reach out to 8,000 farmers in 16 communities in the four districts who had an average family size of eight.
Under the circumstances, he said, the project would cover a total of 64,000 people, of which 40 per cent would be women farmers.
He said agricultural lands in the Upper East and parts of the Northern region were marginally infertile and dry and had insufficient soil nutrients, which posed a challenge to agricultural production.
In addition, he said, the literacy levels of smallholder farmers compelled them to use inorganic fertilisers and other chemicals with the results that farmers experienced low yields and incomes rendering them vulnerable to shocks and deprivation.
He said tractor services or use of farm animals to plough the land were limited to very few farmers who had the means. He said this posed challenges to efforts to improve agriculture productivity since peasant farmers could not meet suitable times for ploughing, planting and weeding.
Most Rev. Agyenta noted that the growing trends in the use of agro-chemicals without guidelines was a capital-intensive venture for smallholder farmers since its side effects were costly.
He called for attention to be paid to such developing trends which could derail efforts to achieve sustainable agricultural practices by smallholder farmers.
The Catholic Bishop observed that the project would be fruitless if humans who were at the root of climate change did not change their attitude towards the environment.
Promote organic fertiliser
Prof. Miller said the fertility of the soils in the designated areas were poor and needed to be supplemented with fertilisers, but indicated that it was preferable to use organic instead of chemical fertiliser.
He said organic fertiliser could be used for any type of crop, unlike chemical fertiliser which targeted specific crops.
Prof. Miller advocated large-scale production of organic fertiliser at affordable prices, adding that it was simple for farmers.
He said the production of organic fertiliser was less expensive compared to the cost involved in importing chemical fertiliser.
“For example, groundnut husk and groundnut leaves mixed together is a simple form of an organic fertiliser.
"We spend a lot of dollars importing fertiliser and in the end buy sickness into our farming system and do ourselves a disservice. The more chemical fertiliser you bring in, the more destruction caused to the soils," he said.