GATES FOUNDATION SUPPORTS NORTHERN FARMERS

(Daily Graphic, Nov 10, 2011, Page 23)

THE Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding a new agricultural initiative that seeks to improve the wellbeing of low income and smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

Under the initiative, known as N2Africa, farmers are provided with high quality inoculants used to boost the yield of leguminous crops and enrich the soil.

This initiative forms part of a scientific research project that seeks to test the viability of increasing the Nitrogen level in soils through a process known as Biological Nitrogen Fixation (BNF).

In Ghana, the N2Africa project is being implemented in seven districts of the Northern, Upper West and Upper East regions and over 10,000 farmers are expected to benefit from it.

As part of the project’s implementation, UrbANET, a network of farmer-based organisations, has engaged about 2500 smallholder farmers and has established 60 demonstration farms in the Karaga and Savelugu/Nanton districts of the Northern Region.

During a visit to one the demonstration farms in Karaga, the Programmes Officer of UrbANET, Mr Jibril Mohammed Basit told the Daily Graphic that the farmers were receiving training in how to apply the inoculants for excellent results.

He said in order to ensure that the technology was well disseminated, UrbANET had organised exchange visits for the farmers to various demonstration farms so they could share and learn best practices.

Mr Basit explained that the focus of the N2Africa project was to explore how to use grain legumes as an engine to revitalize productivity of cropping systems.

He said the research was been spearheaded by the Plant Production Systems of the Wageningen University in the Netherlands through a grant provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Mr Basit noted that the application of inoculants leads to an increase in the yield of legumes, like soybeans, groundnuts and cowpea, whiles also increasing soil fertility.

He said the application of the inoculants was less expensive and more sustainable as compared to the use of chemical fertilizer.

He said although the farmers were currently getting the inoculants for free due to the project, the inoculants might be introduced to the market at a reasonable cost after the successful completion of the project.

Mr Basit noted that apart from introducing this new technology to the farmers, the project was also enhancing the laboratory capacities in all implementing countries.

He said substantial investments in the state-of-the-art facilities were being made to enhance the capacities of agricultural research stations to carry out research in rhizobiology and general soil microbiology.

“In Ghana, the Soil Research Institute has refurbished a laboratory for rhizobiology activities and has taken delivery of other assorted equipment,” he indicated.