Northern farmers commend AGRA’s support

Three Farmer Based Organisations in Central Gonja and Mion districts on Thursday lauded the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and its partners for the enormous support towards food security and poverty eradication.

Members of the three groups are from, Alipe community in Central Gonja and Sanze and Kulinkpeg communities also in the Mion districts, through the technical support of AGRA’s three-year Integrated Agricultural Productivity Improvement and Marketing Project (INTAPIMP), have had increased maize and rice yields of about 100 per cent.

Mr Sakara Abudu, Secretary of Alipe FBO, during a field visit by officials of AGRA, DANIDA and its other partners, said INTAPIMP had trained the group on Integrated Soil Fertility Management and crop production.

The project, which is targeting about 10,000 farmers to cultivate rice, soyabean and maize, seeks to complement government’s efforts towards poverty reduction by September 2015.

It is being implemented by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in eight districts in the Northern Region, namely; West Gonja, Bole, Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, East Gonja, Yendi, Mion, Zabzugu-Tatale and West Mamprusi.

Mr Abudu said farmers had been taught good agronomic practices and had also been linked to agro-input dealers, offered tractor service as well as other value chain actors.

He said they were benefiting from the services of Volunteer Extension Officers trained by the project to augment that of the work of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture Extension Officers.

Mr Lars Joker, Programme Coordinator for Private Sector Development at DANIDA, advised farmers to cultivate the habit of saving at every season to be able to expand their farms. Mr Wilson Doku, AGRA Agriculture Value Chain Facility Manager, assured of AGRA’s continues support towards improving the living standards of farmers through its numerous projects.

He said aside the INTAPIMP and some partners were implementing other projects, including the Agriculture Value Chain Management Project (AVCMP) and Innovative Financing, which seeks to help transform subsistence farming into a viable commercial industry to facilitate the achievement of the government’s objective of lifting millions out of poverty.