Fifty smallholder farmers atnew kokoankpe in Atebubu in the BrongAhafo region have benefited from a field day organised by Yara Ghana limited as part of its drive to share knowledge on good agronomic practices with smallholder farmers.
The programme involved Yara agronomists providing technical advice on the Yara Crop Nutrition Concept as well as effective fertilizer application processes to enable the farmers achieve higher yields with minimal environmental impact.
According to the Marketing Assistant of Yara Ghana Limited, Mr. Kwame Okyere,the?Yara Crop Nutrition Concept combines crop knowledge, product portfolio and application competence to provide profitable solution to the growers?.According to him all these elements must be understood and well implemented in order to achieve optimum yields while supporting a sustainable environment.
He further reiterated that the Ghanaian smallholder farmer is key to long term food security in Ghana since they dominate the agriculturalsector ?there is the need therefore to encourage smallholder farmers to pursue sustainable intensification of production through improved inputs and knowledge?,he added.
A participant at the field day madam Augustina Boakyewaa admitted that she always thought using ammonia and NPK 15-15-15 was enough?I didn?t know different crops have different fertilizer requirements which you have to consider ? she added.
The technical training was conducted by Mr. Richmond Dogbe a Yara agronomist who took the farmers through the basic crop nutrition, recommended protocols for fertilizer application and other best farmer practices for improved yields
During the programme the yield from two demonstration plots of maize with one using the traditional farmer practice of fertilization which is NPK 15-15-15 and Ammonia and the other using the Yara recommendations of Actyva were shelled, weighed and bagged in front of the participants.
Though factors like late planting and poor rains negatively affected the yield,the Yara recommended practice yielded two and a half 100kg bags as compared to one and a quarter bags from the farmer practice. The plot sizes were 0.25 of an acre each.
10 corn cobs sampled from both plots and weighed had 3.7 kg for the Yara recommendation and 3.4 kg for the normal farmer practice.
The agricultural extension agent for the area Mr. Lawrence Adomako called on the farmers to put to good use the knowledge they have acquired in order to benefit from it.
Yara is a leading mineral fertilizer company with a global presence. Yara Ghana was set up in 2008 to strengthen the quality and depth of input supply and related services along agricultural value chains to help increase the productivity of Ghanaian farmers.
