The Savannah Agricultural Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-SARI) has established an agricultural Innovation Platform (IP) in the Sissala East Municipality as part of measures to improve maize and soybean productivity.
The platform is expected to enhance access to and adoption of agricultural technologies among smallholder farmers to enable its members innovate indigenous interventions against the challenges within the maize and soybean value chains, and the agricultural sector in general.
'Normally, you release an improved variety of a crop and there is less adoption simply because the institutions are not working and also because of inadequate personnel in the agricultural extension service', Mr Alhassan Nuhu Jinbaani, an Agricultural Economist with the Nyamkpala Station of the CSIR-SARI, said.
He said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Wa, on some initiatives of the Institute to improve the productivity of smallholder farmers in northern Ghana.
An IP consists of a group of stakeholders from different backgrounds with the aim of addressing challenges and maximising opportunities in a particular commodity value chain like maize.
Representatives of agro-input dealers, the Sissala East Municipal Assembly, traders, farmers, aggregators, Co-operative Credit Union, processors, and the Department of District Cooperatives constituted the platform in the Sissala East Municipality.
Mr Jinbaani said the initiative formed part of the implementation of the 'Creating Lands of Opportunities: Transforming Livelihoods through Landscape Restoration,' project aimed to improve the maize and soybeans value chains in the Upper West and Upper East Regions.
An IP had also been inaugurated in the Talensi District in the Upper East Region under the project funded by the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transitions through the United Nations Conventions to Combat Desertification-Global Mechanism.
Mr Jinbaani indicated that similar platforms have been established in Savelugu and Navrongo in the Northern and Upper East Regions respectively in the early 2000, which had proved useful to the farmers in those areas.
He explained that the platform also, 'serves as a measure against the imperfect institutions or market that we have in the system', by creating a link between the farmers, agro-input dealers, and aggregators for easy access to markets among themselves.
The Agricultural Economist said the members of the platform had been strategically selected and engaged extensively on the benefits of the IP to ensure its sustainability even after the project elapsed
Mr Jinbaani stressed the need for all stakeholders including the agricultural research institutions, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the media among others to perform their responsibility towards improving agricultural productivity in northern Ghana, and Ghana in general.
'Some farmers found themselves in certain conditions by virtue of their geographical location,' he said, adding that, farmers in Northern Ghana needed the necessary support to improve their productivity due to the poor soil condition in that part of the country.
Dr. Iddrisu Yahaya, an Agricultural Economist at the Wa Station of the CSIR-SARI, said the IP would also serve as a platform for the actors to share agricultural information towards improving the maize and soybean value chains.
He said the project was being implemented by CSIR-SARI, ARocha Ghana and Environmental Protection Agency to make a significant and sustainable contribution towards landscape restoration in the Sahel, while creating income-generating activities for local communities in Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
Dr. Yahaya explained that CSIR-SARI was contributing to achieving the project objectives by improving the livelihoods of rural communities through establishing sustainable production of high-value dry lands products to connect local producers to international markets.
Source: Ghana News Agency