At age 55, Beatrice Asantewaa has been actively
farming yam, cassava, cocoyam, maize, plantain and groundnuts for over 20
years.
She is fulfilled at tilling the soil to produce food
to feed her family and also earns good income to manage her other economic
needs.
“I get enough produce to cater for my family and
sell others to get money for other things,” she said.
Her major challenge, perhaps, is access to market to
ease the disposal of her harvests.
In the future, however, Beatrice will face a bigger
challenge of accessing fertile land to grow her crops, as opportunities to
allow lands to fallow dwindle.
“Virgin lands are no longer available because of
climate change, charcoal burning and indiscriminate tree felling,” noted Henry
Azot, a Chief Technical Officer at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).
He says critical interventions will be needed to
address the challenge of declining soil fertility and scarcity of virgin lands
for use in yam cultivation.
Research scientists are exploring solutions to help
farmers overcome this challenge by introducing farmers to the Pigeon Pea–Yam
Cropping System for improved yam productivity.
The new planting system, implemented by the Crops
Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
(CSIR) and partners, has been identified as sustainable for yam production in
the face of depleting soils and climate change.
Research scientist on the project, Eric Owusu
Danquah, says the technology also address staking which is crucial in yam
production.
“This is very important as it sustains the soil
nutrient. It also helps in climate change because farmers don’t clear places on
yearly basis; they stay on a particular place continuously for a longer period.
We are saving the farmers from cutting down trees to use as stake which also
help in carbon sequestration,” he explained.
The pigeon pea is used as allays with the yams planted
in-between the ridges. The system also involves placing the pigeon pea at the
border zone which are cut and used at stakes – the direct access to stakes
saves the farmers from the labour, transportation and cost of buying stakes.
The pigeon pea conserves moisture and fixes
atmospheric nitrogen. Its leaves or biomass, which are cut and spread before
land preparation, also add to the soil carbon and nutrient stock in sustaining
soil fertility.
By 2020, the researchers are hoping to come out with
a technology that will be appreciated by farmers.
Opanyin Adu is among yam farmers from the Ashanti
and Brong Ahafo regions targeted for the on-station field trials of the new
cropping system at Aframso in the Ejura-Sekyeredumase District of the Ashanti
region.
He has been farming the past 30 years, long enough
to appreciate the dwindling soil nutrition.
Without the application of fertilizer, Opanyin Adu
used to harvest good yields from his yam farm though he planted in mounds.
“Now the land has lost its potency, so you need to
apply fertilizer if you are to attain good yield,” he observed.
Opanyin is now looking forward to the outcome of the
Pigeon pea–yam cropping system as a productive alternative to his conventional
planting method.
“We like the growth of the yam and believe it will
be beneficial for us to listen to the researchers. I will like to experiment
the new system by farming alongside my conventional system to appreciate the
difference,” he said.
Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh
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