Dr. Peter Quandahor, an Entomologist with the Wa office of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI), has advised farmers to resort to agro-ecological farming such as inter-cropping to control the Fall Army Worm (FAW) on their fields alongside the use of agrochemicals to achieve optimum results.
He said agro-ecological farming such as inter-cropping using maize and leguminous crops such as soybeans or cowpea could destruct the movement of the FAW larvae from one maize crop to the other thereby reducing the impact of the warm on the crops.
Dr. Quandahor, gave the advice in Tumu during a pre-season training workshop for 45 farmers in the Nanchala and Sakalu communities in the Sissala East Municipality as part of the implementation of the “Creating Lands of Opportunity: Transforming Livelihoods through Landscape Transformation in the Sahel” project.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is implementing the project in partnership with the CSIR-SARI, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and A Rocha Ghana, with the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition as the donor through the United Nations Convention to combat Desertification-Global Mechanism.
The five million Euros project is being implemented in eight communities within eight districts of the Upper West and East Regions from 2020 to 2023.
The workshop was to build the capacity of the farmers in Good Agronomic Practices (GAPs), effective weeds and pest control, and community seed production concept on maize and soybeans value chain as well as to boost their marketing skills.
Presenting on pest and disease control, Dr. Quandahor said the FAW has been a major challenge to farmers in the country since it invaded the country in 2017 and has since caused serious havoc to crops, especially maize.
“Apart from the leguminous crop fixing nitrogen into the soils to improve the soil quality, it can also reduce the Fall Army Warm infestation on your field”, he said.
Dr. Quandahor also advised the farmers to start scouting for the FAW on their fileds two weeks after the emergence of the crops and should commence its control measures after infestation exceeds 20 per cent.
Dr. Julius Yirzagla, a researcher with the CSIR-SARI based in Bawku, trained the farmers on GAPs including timely fertilizer application, weed, and pest control, improved crop varieties to plant, and land selection and preparation, threshing, and bagging.
He advised the farmers to select appropriate lands for their crops and to avoid planting crops such as maize and soybeans on clayey or gravel and shady fields as that could hamper the growth and yield of the crops.
“You have to apply the fertilizer at the right time, follow the recommended spacing, and plant in rows. You should make sure that you apply the right quantities of whatever you have, talking about the fertilizer and the pesticides.
“I also tell farmers that apart from the inorganic fertilizers, they should also use inorganic fertilizers and use the crop residues as mulch for proper moisture retention instead of burning them”, he said.
Dr. Francis Ndamani, the Sissala East Municipal Direct of Agriculture, also took the farmers through marketing and entrepreneurial skills development.
He urged them to do a market survey to identify the crop that is in high demand in the market and with the appreciable market price before going into production.
“You should see farming as a business and move away from small-scale production to large-scale production.
“You don’t have to rely on the market in Tumu only, there are markets outside where you can get good prices for your produce”, he said.
Mr Haruna Ali, a Research Technician with the CSIR-SARI based in Tumu, also trained the farmers on community seed production concept and said the concept was to make improved seeds readily available to farmers at affordable prices.