Poverty reduction and the transformation of livelihoods in Northern Ghana can only be achieved through the concerted efforts of all stakeholders in the agriculture sector.
This will help reverse the resultant low agriculture productivity through the introduction of new technologies.
Dr Stephen Nutsugah, Director of the Savannah Agriculture Institute (SARI), made this observation at a two-day consultative meeting on Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF), organized by SARI in collaboration with the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) in Tamale on Thursday.
The consultative forum brought together agriculture research scientists, development specialists and river basin communities to develop strategies that would help improve the management and productivity of water in river basins that are pro-poor, gender equitable and environmentally sustainable.
Dr Nutsugah said in predominantly smallholder farming systems of Northern Ghana, livelihoods were directly dependent on harvestable crop yields on seasonal basis and that constraints to sustainable production were the dry spells during the dry cropping seasons, low fertility of farmlands and farming practices that exacerbated the effects of drought and low soil fertility.
“Inadequate capacity to harvest rainwater for domestic, crop and livestock needs, little use of inorganic fertilizer and organic residue management and reliance on crop varieties and cropping systems that did not adequately match water availability lead to reduced harvestable crop yields and reduced productivity of water,” Dr Nutsugah said.
He said the necessity for women to obtain water for domestic chores reduced time available for income generation and therefore interventions by systems approach that is gender sensitive are needed to ensure sustained livelihoods of the farming communities.
Dr Nutsugah said it was in the light of this that the CSIR and SARI were working assiduously and collaboratively in developing technologies to support the agriculture sector and mentioned the release of two new high-yielding cowpea varieties named Apagbaala and Marfo-Tuya to enhance food security.
He said four new varieties namely; Padi-Tuya, Zayura, Songotra and Bawutawuta had been released earlier in 2008.
Dr Nutsugah said another variety; Kapaala was currently the most important commercially grown sorghum both as a staple food crop and as a cash crop due to its superior malting properties.
He said SARi was in the process of developing drought tolerant Kapaala derivatives for Northern Ghana.
He said SARI had also introduced a Domestic Water Harvesting project under which it financed the construction of 144 low cost ferro-cement water reservoirs to demonstrate to poor households in Northern Ghana how to store rain water.
Dr Nutsugah earlier noted that in 2004-2006, SARI had participated in CPWF Projects like the CP-5, which was aimed at enhancing rain water and nutrient use for improved crop productivity, farm income and rural livelihoods in the Volta Basin.
He said another project, the CP-6, was to empower farming communities in region with strategic innovations and productive resources in dry land farming.
He said the two projects largely addressed the key constraints of agriculture production namely soil fertility and erratic rainfall and had widespread coverage spanning 44 communities in the Tamale and Navrongo areas with total farmer coverage of 2000.