ReDIAL Project: Techiman farmers sensitised on soil fertility, organic farming

A number of selected farmers in the Techiman Municipality of Bono East Region, has been sensitised under the Research for Development and Innovation Agricultural Learning (ReDIAL) Project to promote soil fertility and organic farming.

The one day engagement sensitised the farmers to consider soil nutrition management as the key to quality and healthy food production for food safety.

The farmers were educated and informed about the significance of protecting natural organisms such as worms, ants, and millipedes whose presence and activities in the soil promotes soil fertility.

The European Union funded project, is being implemented nationwide jointly by three natural resources sustainability promotion institutions/organisations, including the Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in six areas including Techiman.

Addressing the farmers, Professor Boateng Kyereh, the Dean, Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources, explained that the ReDIAL project created platform among others for farmers’ voices to be heard and to address their challenges in farming.

Consequently, it focused on redirecting the attention of farmers to reduce the use of inorganic fertilizers and resort to the application of organic manure to restore the original soil fertility for crop and other agro-productions, he added.

Prof. Kyereh stated the project also sought to bring on board researchers and stakeholders to dialogue on issues that reflected on the development of the farming community.

He underscored the need to protect the soil through crop rotation, land fallowing and mixed farming, saying that was the surest way to maintain and improve the fertility level of the soil.

Prof. Kyereh identified the method of farm burning in clearing and preparing the land for planting as one of the worst forms of making the soil infertile because of its destructive nature of the soil nutrients.

He said, “the farm waste” that must be left on the land during its preparation and after harvest to decay and turn into manure to boost the soil fertility too was burnt.

Prof. Kyereh urged farmers to make it a matter of priority to nurture the soil by desisting from practicing unfriendly environmental activities like bush burning and excessive use of agro-chemicals on their farms.

Touching on the sustainability of the project, Prof. Emmanuel Acheampong, ReDIAL Project Coordinator at KNUST, said the project was relying on multi-stakeholder support to survive, saying farmers and their partners would become owners of the project for its survival.

Prof. Acheampong said the project was also supporting the government’s Planting for Food and Jobs (PfFJs) Programme to succeed for the benefit of farmers.

Nana Kwaw Adams, the Executive Director of Abrono Organic Farming Project (AbofaP) at Forikrom, a farming community in Techiman, lauded the ReDIAL project for its emphasis on the use of organic manure, which he described as, “the preferred productive buster that can support the soil to produce quality food crops for human consumption.”

Nana Adams suggested the need for the government and its partners to promote large scale production of organic manure to reduce the importation of inorganic fertilizers that did not produce 100 per cent natural food for human consumption.