Farmers can harvest 60 bags of maize per acre – Expert

Mr Raja A. Najjar, the Chief Executive Officer of Agriserve, a seed marketing company, has suggested the adoption of hybrid seeds to help maximize the productivity of farmers in the country.

He said research conducted on farms by his company using white and yellow hybrid maize seeds indicated that farmers could harvest as high as 42 mini-bags of maize per acre with good agricultural practices  and that the highest yield achieved so far from the field survey was 60 mini bags of maize per acre.

He said this when speaking at the formal opening of a six-day training of trainers’ workshop for 4-H Ghana’s Enterprise School Gardening Programme in Koforidua.

The workshop is being sponsored by Pioneer Dupont, a seed company based in the USA.

Mr Najjar whose company is the local representative of Pioneer Dupont, said with the adaptation of hybrid seeds in the country, with the same land size, farmers could improve upon their productivity to feed the nation.

He said the fundamental human right was Freedom and Liberty but without food security, one could lose that Freedom and Liberty required for his or her survival.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Eastern Regional Minister, Dr Kwasi Akyem Apea-Kubi, said the government alone could not provide all the facilities needed to make Ghana a better place.

He said government would therefore welcome efforts at helping to improve upon the living standards f the people.

Dr Apea-Kubi called on the participants to take the workshop serious so that they could share whatever knowledge they would acquire with the people in their districts.

Mrs Eunice Adams, Director of Women in Agriculture Development of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), said even though adequate nutrition and education had been identified as important for the development of the child yet many children go to school on empty stomach.

She said those children would not be able to concentrate in class, resist diseases and easily drop out of school and therefore welcomed the development of the school gardening concept.

Mrs Adams said the project created a platform for the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Forestry Commission to join hands to help the country to achieve some of the Millennium Development Goals of the country and assured of the readiness of her Ministry to participate in the project.

Dr Mary Crave, member of the National 4-H Council of the USA, said since the establishment of 4-H in the USA in 1902, it had grown to become one of the major youth development organizations in the area and many countries across the world.

She said recent research in the USA indicated that youth who joined the 4-H were most likely to grow to become community leaders and also excel in their class than their peers due to the life and leadership skills learned as members of 4-H.

Dr Crave said 4-H was interested in Ghana to help expose the youth to opportunities in agriculture and help the country to achieve food security.

Earlier in a welcoming address, the Executive Director of 4-H Ghana, Mr Appiah Kwaku Boateng, said the project would be executed in Ghana within the next two years in two phases.

He said under the first phase, the project would be started in 12 districts in the Eastern Region under which the project would provide knowledge, tools and maize and vegetable seeds to school children to undertake school gardening projects in their schools and their homes.

Mr Boateng said the project was aimed at helping young people to create sustainable livelihood and improve household and national food security for people across the country and halting the rural urban migration.

He said after the first phase, the project would be extended to other regions in the country.

Source: GNA