Agricultural practices are taking a different dimension at a time, the sector faced with a possible climate change. Consequently, experts have warned of a possible famine in the country due to poor rainfall pattern witnessed last year, 2015, and the rainfall forecast for 2016.
It is against this backdrop that farmers have been urged to embrace NO- Till as the new method of farming. NO-Tillage practice as a method of farming has not been commonly used by farmers; however, with the spate of development in the agriculture sector many experts believe that this should be the new way of farming.
NO-Tillage practices
Tillage has been used for millennia to prepare the soil prior to sowing many of the annual grain crops. It involves applying power to break up and rearrange the entire topsoil structure.
It destroy weeds and pests and is also important for incorporating, redistributing or releasing nutrients and making the soil texture suitable for seed sowing, seed germination and for easy penetration of seedling roots.
The Director of Center For No – Till Agriculture, at Amanchia in the Atwima Nwabiagya district of the Ashanti region, Dr. Kofi Boah, has called on farmers to adopt NO-Tillage practices during the main crop season to salvage the country from the scare of food insecurity.
He said No- tillage practices are important in areas where water is a major limitation to production and where soil structure is poor and erosion is also a problem.
‘This practices when implemented and followed by the farmers will have long term protection of the soil resources in it natural and rich state, reduce the cost of repairing machinery and labour in clearing of the weeds from the farms before planting or sowing of seeds.’
Dr. Kofi Boah made these remarks at a visit by some members of Ghana Agricultural & Rural Development Journalists Association (Gardja) to the Center.
The trip afforded journalist the opportunity to be schooled on how the No- Till system of farming has helped to boost food efficiency and production for indigenous farmers in the catchment areas of the Center.
This unique farming practice was introduced in Ghana by the Director of the Center for No -Till Agricultural Center
A visit to a 20 acre of plantain plantation tells how the system seeks to change food production in the coming years despite the looming drought.
He advised farmers to end trash and burn of weeds before sowing else they stand to lose more during the post harvest period.
“The climate change pattern is not conducive for farming and to sustain and have enough moisture in the soil, ‘proka,’ an Akan word for No- tilling, is the best farming method to resist the drought in 2016,” he stated.
Our farming methods would be more efficient if we applied established principles that are well adapted to the agricultural production.
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