Agriculturist ask farmers in Upper West Region to manage bushfires
The Upper West Regional Director of Food and Agriculture, has advised farmers attending this year’s international exchange forum in Wa, to learn from the experiences of neighbouring Burkina Faso in bushfire management to enhance agricultural production.
Mr Charles Adam, expressed the need for the participants to study the management and utilisation of water resources in food and livestock production as well as post harvest losses to enhance their economic livelihoods.
He asked Ghanaian farmers to understudy their Burkinabe counterparts to address the issues of climate change that is affecting agricultural production.
Mr Adam was speaking at an international farmers exchange forum involving Ghana, Burkina Faso Mali and Niger in Wa.
The three-day forum would provide a platform for representative of farmers’ groups and researchers to exchange ideas on farming practices and forge links among them in the West African sub-region.
Mr Adam said there are similarities of climate conditions of the countries attending the forum, hence the need for the participants to exchange ideas.
He commended the government’s “Block Farming” concept that engage the youth in agricultural production to better their lot.
He said 12,000 acres of rice, maize and sorghum had been cultivated this year under the programme.
Mr Adam listed the Livestock Project, Northern Rural Development Programme, establishment of agricultural mechanisation centres and the Fertilizer Subsidy Programme, as some of the best government’s agricultural interventions to enhance food production.
Mr Duogu Yakubu, Wa Municipal Chief Executive, who opened the forum, urged the participants to use the forum to strengthen the existing good relations among their countries for the mutual benefit of their people.
He said the experiences that would be shared at the forum would help enrich farming practices to increase higher food production in the sub region.
Mr Yakubu tasked researchers from the region to learn of the best farming practices and implicate them in the agricultural module of the National Youth Employment Programme.
He asked them to take lessons from participants from the neighbouring countries to build the capacity of farmers in the region to enable them manage their crops and weather conditions properly.
Source: GNA