Yakort — The National Facilitator of Forest and Farm Facility of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nation in-charged of Ghana, Mr Elvis Kuudaar, has urged smallholder farmers in the Upper East Region to integrate sorghum, soya beans, maize and fish farming which have ready markets into their farming activities.
The National Facilitator made the call when he paid a working visit to some of Forest and Farm Facility project sites in the Upper East Region on Saturday.
Addressing the Maltaaba Peasant Women Farmers' Cooperative in their farm site at Yakort in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region who are into vegetable farming and tree growing, the National Facilitator said there were ready market for sorghum and soya beans and encouraged them to diversify their farming activities to such crops.
He told the smallholder women farmers to become aggregators and build their capacities to engage in farming, buying and selling to companies such as Gainliness Ghana which is in dire need of sorghum for production of Guinness and other related drinks.
He assured the farmers in the project areas that depending on their seriousness, his outfit was ready to support them with mechanised boreholes with solar powers with overheard tanks to go into such activities.
Mr Kuudaar said the project was interested in getting the entire communities to get involved in such farming activities to produce in large quantities in order to attract companies who are in need of such produce.
He stressed that he disagreed with the school of taught that share the opinion that the Northern parts of the country were endemic with poverty and indicated that one of the potentials of the area is its richness with underground water.
He mentioned specifically that, majority of the landmarks in the five regions of the north namely; Northern, North-East, Savannah, Upper East and Upper West Regions were endowed with water which could be tapped for all-year -round farming activities instead of relying on One Village, One Dam, which many atimes have disappointed farmers.
The leader of the of Maltaaba Peasant Women Farmers' Cooperative, Mrs Baninimah Touah thanked FAO for supporting the women who are mostly widows and single mothers and said through the intervention, majority of them have been able to sell the vegetables they harvested from their farm to help cater for their family including paying for their children's school fees and National Health Insurance Premium.
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She however, appealed for overhead tank to help irrigate their large tracks of farms and also fencing materials to prevent animal from destroying their crops.
Mrs Baninimah gave the assurance that they would integrate Sorghum, Soya beans and maize farming into their vegetable farming activities.
The Executive Secretary of Maltaaba Peasant Women Farmers' Cooperative, Ms Lydia Miyella, said the support the women farmers got from the facility had empowered them to procure a mechanised borehole for farming particularly during dry season.
She added instead of using fertilisers, Weedicides and Pesticides which have their dangerous effects on the soil fertility, the plant and population of water sources, the project had additionally built the capacity of the group to use alternative means such as using animal dropping, grass and plant stocks to make compost manure for framing
