CSIR-FORIG proposes agricultural intensification

It is troubling that most of the research material representing careful analysis and projections by specially trained professionals are not mainstreamed to the national discourse, and perhaps hidden from view altogether. These are integral to the human race. They are brought about by the dynamics embedded in nature yet overlooked at our own risk because they are concomitantly unavoidable.

The Director of CSIR-Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Prof. Dr. Daniel Ofori has launched himself into a forecast by world bodies, one of which constituted an existential threat to human survival on the planet. Thus, the professor is proposing greater reforms in the agricultural sector.

At stake is the ballot of ideas as to what might be the most appropriate response to the belief world population could hit 9 billion by 2050, which increase means a doubling of the figures in sub-saharan Africa. To this, the leading CSIR scientist explains to be a mixed bag but reacts more to the negatives that may attend the demographic changes. He reckons the dangers are imminent which will surely fall on our heads like the meteorite, hence a need to hold ourselves in readiness by putting shock absorbers in place.

Population increase translates into extension in human habitat. This degrades forest estates and reduces arable land. With land expected to become scarcer in the face of human invasion, the agricultural scientist has mooted the idea called agricultural intensification.

It is a system of land management to optimize or maximize the potentials in a particular piece of land. It is a choice available to the world, nations and individuals. Instead of expanding the coverage area, intensification seeks to maintain the size of land for agricultural activity into more activities.

The multiple use of same piece of land for agricultural purposes look at the scenario where farmers embark on mixed cropping and mixed farming. Thus, a variety of crops may be planted on same piece of land, and the different types of farming such as crop, livestock and fish breeding also undertaken on the same parcel of land.

This compression is likely to affect smallholder farmers more, as large tracts of land could be carved for large-scale commercial interests.

In the conventional sense of this idea, after the harvest of crops, residue becomes fodder for livestock, while its dual purpose is the manure it attends for the soil’s enrichment. The broad mechanism of this is the context being given. It is a comprehensive look at urbanisation and its impact on ecosystems to be factored in development, including the specialized management of biodiversity.

Also recommended is agro-forestry. Here, farmers are expected to plant crops within existing forests without sacrificing the latter.

Since human activities such as mining has the effect of contaminating the environment, which then inhibit plant growth, the scientists of CSIR-Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, are planning a nature-based solution for restoration. Under this, it is examining the different capacities of various trees in absorbing toxic minerals discharged into soils.