Delaying rains said to be hampering farming activities in Northern Ghana

Nyanpkala La-Naa Yakubu Abdulia has expressed concern about the undue delay of the coming of the rains this year, which according to him is hampering farming in the northern part of the country.

He said because of the situation, most farmers were unable to start sowing and transplanting crops, and called on Christians and Muslims to pray for the rains to come.

La-Naa Abdulia in an interview with the GNA in Tamale, lamented that farmers in the north could not cultivate groundnuts, beans, maize, millet, rice and yams.

Dr Mathias Fosu, a Senior Research Officer at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), however, told the GNA said  that studies conducted by SARI conformed with others by international organizations that there was a projected decrease in January to June rainfall and an increase in July to October.

He said the rainfall pattern in the recent years corroborated these projections and “for example in 2007 and 2011, January to June was very dry and August to October was wetter than normal, leading to flooding”.

Dr Fosu advised farmers in the north to plant in second week in July instead of May/June, which formally was the onset of the rains.

Source: GNA