Livelihood project launched in Upper East Region
The Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocese in the Upper East Region has launched a three-year livelihood and advocacy project to build the capacity of selected farmers to cope with climate change variability to enhance food security.
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The project, which is in partnership with MISEREOR of Germany, would be implemented in three districts of the Upper East Region and one district in the Northern Region.
The districts include, Builsa South, Bongo and Tongo in the Upper East Region and the West Mamprusi District in the Northern Region.
The project launch, which was on the theme "Strengthening of Small holder Farmer Resilience Towards a Changing Climate", was attended by the Catholic Bishop of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese, Most Reverend Alfred Agyenta, the Chancellor of Miller Open University, Professor Bob Miller and selected farmers and stakeholders from the beneficiary districts.
Beneficiaries
Launching the project at the Catholic Farmer Training Centre at Pusu-Namongo in the Talensi District in the Upper East Region, Most Reverend Alfred Agyenta said the project sought to reach out to 8,000 farmers in 16 communities in the four districts with an average family size of 8 bringing the total beneficiary families to 64,000 of which 40 per cent would be women farmers.
He said agricultural lands in the Upper East and parts of Northern regions were marginally infertile and dry resulting in inadequate soil nutrients and depletion, which posed a challenge to agricultural production.
Promote organic fertiliser
The Chancellor of the Miller Open University, Professor David Bob Miller, advised farmers to resort to the use of organic instead of chemical fertiliser on their farms.
He said organic fertiliser could be used for any type of crop unlike chemical fertiliser which was specific. The Chancellor advocated large scale production of affordable organic fertiliser for farmers.
"We spend a lot of dollars importing fertilizer thus buying sickness into our farming system when we can produce quality materials locally which would create jobs and value addition to the agricultural sector. The more chemical fertiliser you bring in, the more you are destroying the soils," Prof. Miller emphasised.
