GHANA

Partners

Activities carried out:

NUS identified:

Integrated soil fertility management strategies

Traditional Knowledge

Post-harvest management strategies to avoid mycotoxin contamination

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (CSIR-SARI)

Kundok Development Consult (KDC)

Both KDC and CSIR - SARI are operating together in multiple FFRUs located in 3 regions: North-East, Northern, Upper East. Their activities include:

Storage methods and structures for groundnuts.
Organic and inorganic fertilizers to enhance soil fertility.
Improved Frafra potato varieties.
Evaluation and selection of Fonio varieties and intercrops.
Testing of bio-pesticides.
Water management.

FONIO - TECHNOLOGY TESTED: identification of elite climate-smart fonio landraces with high nutritional properties for release as varieties and promotion the cultivation and utilization of fonio outside the known cultivation areas.
FRA FRA POTATO - TECHNOLOGY TESTED: Demonstration fields of five improved varieties of Frafra potato were released by CSIR-SARI. The objective was to showcase these varieties to the farmers in the communities within the FFRUs and assess their preferences for the different varieties.

SUSTAINABLE SOIL MANAGEMENT

For Ghanaian farmers, the deployed surveys were used to track the

mapping of abandoned lands and assessment of soil fertility;
intercropping.

KDC tested the following technological packages:

Effects of physical protection of soil by means of earth/stone bands on maize yield
Effects of the combined application of organic and inorganic fertilizers in cereals based cropping systems.

and CSIR-SARI investigated the following:

Effects of the use of organic and mineral fertilizers combined to soil preparation practices in cereal based cropping systems.

SUSTAINABLE SOIL FERTILITY AND WATER MANAGEMENT

Tie-ridging and the application of organic and inorganic fertilizers to soils to enhance water retention and soil fertility levels for cereal production in northern Ghana

Soils of Northern Ghana are poor with low fertility and water holding capacity. Runoff is high in most areas leading to erosion and nutrient depletion of soils especially the topsoil horizon. The low grain yields of cereals such as millet and sorghum emanate from the poor nature of soils in the area.

INTERCROPPING

In Ghana, KDC focuses on:

Evaluation of legume (cowpea, groundnuts, soybean) to intercrop with Fonio for reduced disease incidence & fonio performance

Intercroping which is the growing of more than one crop species on the same piece of land at the same cropping season is very common in Africa and in Ghana in particular. Some of the advantages for the practice are numerous but these include efficient use of land, sure of atleast harvesting one crop if the weather is not favourable for the other, enhances soil fertility especially nitrogen if cereals are intercropped with legumes

RETRIEVING PLANT PROTECTION TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE

KDC:

On-farm testing of two indigenous plant extracts in the control of field insect pest on cowpea.

Cowpea is one of the most important legumes which provide non-animal protein to most farm families in Ghana. However the yields are very low partly due to numerous insect infestation in the field. This therefore need proper protection in order to optimize yields if other factors of production are favourable.

CSIR-SARI:

Field trial to demonstrate the efficacy of intercropping systems for fall armyworm (FAW) management in northern Ghana

Demonstration on the field efficacy of neem extracts for fall armyworm (FAW) management in maize

A total of five demonstrations were established in five different communities in Northern (Moaglaa, Diare) and North East (Kukua, Nayorku and Tinguri) regions. It involved a total of 138 farmers from the five communities.

HARVEST MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Concerning this research packages, Ghana tried to developed the most effective pre and post-harvest management strategies to prevent and to avoid mycotoxin contamination in stored food and feed.

The research activities concerning the post-harvest techniques is related to safe storage of harvest staple cereals, legumes and groundnuts to avoid spoilage or pest damage.

Mycotoxins pose food safety risk in Ghana, and aflatoxin contamination poses the most risk, in terms occurrence, prevalence and risk on human health. Groundnut harvested is always stored in several structures made out of wood, mud, jute, and polythene, which, if not appropriate, can expose the crop to insect and aflatoxin infestations which further lowers the quality.

In order to study sustainable solutions for the post-harvest management, experiments were conducted.

CSIR SARI worked on

the assessment of the effects of crop management practices on yield and aflatoxins incidenc of maize and groundnyt.
the fertilizer type (NPK and YaraActyva), Aflasafe on maize and groundnuts (also rhizobia), biopesticides (neem seed oil & leaf extract) & intercropping to control Fall armyworms.

The methodology used was cultivating half an acre ( of groundnuts on each lead farms’ field using Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) at the 4 study sites. Four farmer groups were the direct beneficiaries of the trial; each group had an average of 20 farmers, making a total of 80 farmers.

KDC focuses on

the aflatoxin infestation in groundnuts as influenced by different storage structures/methods in Northern Ghana.

Groundnut remains the most popular and widely cultivated legume in Northern Kenya because of its adaptation to climatic conditions, economic value, and limited field pest problems, but can be infested by mycotoxins due to poor handling.

MAPs

North East

MAPs

Upper East

MAPs

Northern Region