Farmers in UW region benefit from GIZ’s easy access to certified agro-inputs forum

The Market Oriented Agriculture Programme in North West Ghana (MOAP-NW) under the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has facilitated a forum for farmers to have easy access to certified agro-inputs in rural communities of the Upper West Region

The annual forum which was initiated in 2021 was facilitated in 42 locations across the MOAP-NW operational area, aimed at ensuring that at least 15,000 smallholder farmers had access to agro-inputs and also received education on good agriculture practices from experts.

The forum targets farmers and members of the Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) in the 11 districts of the Upper West Region, 2 districts in the Savannah and Mamprugu-Moagduri in the North East Region

Addressing journalists at one of the forums at Fian in the Daffiama-Bussie-Issa District of the Upper West Region, the MOAP-NW Input and Crop Protection Specialist, Mr Emile Aman said over the years, the forum had yielded impressive results and expanded farmers’ access to certified seeds and inputs leading to quality production.

He explained that it provided a platform for farmers, input dealers, researchers and other stakeholders to meet and discuss issues such as crop production techniques, soil fertility management, pest and disease control, irrigation and post-harvest management to enable them learn and network

‘’As inputs has become more expensive, affecting farmers income and productivity, so as advise on the right and efficient use of inputs become even more important, hence, to curb this challenge, advisory services and agro inputs are brought to the doorstep of farmers to complement every budget”, he said.

Mr Aman said the forum also aimed at facilitating linkages between MOAP trained input dealers and the VSLA groups who were mainly famers to create a platform for experts to educate them on health and how to apply fertilizer to their farms.

He advised farmers to buy inputs from certified input dealers who had the capacity to educate them on how to apply them on their various farms

The MOAP-NW Monitoring and Evaluation Expert, Madam Fadila Ahmed Tijani said access to farm inputs in the rural areas had become a challenge to farmers and stressed that the fora were therefore to enable farmers have access affordable inputs at their doorstep.

She urged farmers and other actors in the agriculture industry to deepen their linkages to improve agricultural production in the region.

According to her said this year’s forum was organized by the inputs dealers themselves and the VSLA group and facilitated by MOAP-NW and expressed hope that it would be maintain in the project area even after the project existed.

A farmer in the Fian community, Madam Evelyn Naazie acknowledged the impact of the fora on their farming activities stressing that it helped to increase their access to inputs without any stress

The inputs dealers at the forum also highlighted some of the benefit of the initiative and promised to ensure its sustainability in the area.

The Forum was organized in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) through the Department of Agriculture and the Plant Protection and Regulatory Service Directorate (PPRSD).

FROM RAFIA ABDUL RAZAK WA