First, I headed to Tamale for a week to attend a directors meeting at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture office for two days. At this meeting the Block Farm program was discussed. Block Farms are an initiative from the federal government, where districts are to organize farmers and supply them with inputs on loan to carry out large scale, single plot, monocrop cash cropping. Crops grown include maize, rice, and Soybean. The intended purpose of the program is to get farmers to shifting to farm operations and running them as businesses, as opposed to subsistence operations. This is as most farmers in the Northern region grow many crops in an intercropped, diversified style to mitigate the risk of crop failure. These operations tend to be lest then 5 acres in size. This project hopes to see farmers shifting to one crop operations for their income generation needs, as well as creating a stable supply of cereal/staple crops to ensure Ghana can maintain food security and a national surplus.
After two days of marathon meetings, where the directors of all 20 districts outlined how the program was running to date in their respective districts, we were able to get a clearer picture of the challenges and shortcomings shared across the Northern region with respect to the program. We got a break and were able to tour a rice processing facility. This one is located on the Ministry site, and is run by a group of women how pay for the milling themselves. A total of 10 women work at the centre to 1) clean the rice in water, 2) remove floaters, 3) boil the rice, 4) ensure a moisture content of 35%, 5) fire the rice, 6)dry the rice, 7) mill the risce. No polishing of the rice is done on site, as buyers are okay with the natural and inconsistent color of the grains. The types of rice processed at the site include Jasmine, par boiled and a numbered genetic variety. Par boiled rice tends to be more labour intensive then just straight milled rice and thus should be priced at a higher rate then straight milled rice, but due to lack of consumer education, this is not the case. Par boiled rice also maintains more nutrients and flavor and is often preferred by locals. In thanks to the Engineers Without Borders partnership to promote Ghana grown rice, which was done by an advertising campaign, including a radio jingle commercial, the popularity of their product had boomed and word of mouth that their product was a quality one helped sustain their growth. Rice collected from the Block Farm program is processed at this site through a contract with the ministry.
The following day, prior to our monthly country meeting with our Engineers Without Borders team, me and Mark Abbott were fortunate enough to take a trip down to Pong-Tamale, where Jason Bletcha, a fellow professional volunteer is working with the Agriculture College. Here are some photos from our tour of the Animal Health and Production College:
The agriculture college has a large number of graduates that move on to work within the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (85%). The reason being is that while most come from farm families and see agriculture as a good practice, they refuse to want to do agriculture as a business due to the associated risk that surrounds the industry. Therefore most graduates want the security and benefits of a salary government or private sector job. Those who enter the private sector tend to work in veterinary or drug services, as well as for fertilizer and farm input companies. Some marketing boards do exist in Ghana, amongst them are the Cocoa board as well as a shea nuts board. Emerging agriculture products include pineapples and yams, both of which have not been organized to the point of being marketed by a board.
Upon returing to Saboba, two days later I was invited into the field to join a workshop.
The workshop was in Wapule, about 20 miles west of Saboba, the district capital of the Saboba district. It was for the Integrated Soil Fertility Management Program. It consisted of a demonstration field, with 5 plots, 4 of them maize, one of them beans for fixing nitrogen back into the soil and teaching farmers about crop rotation. The maize plots had different fertilizers applied to them and in varying amounts. The purpose to show farmers that proper application, and not quantity over quality of fertilizer used can yield better results.
Plot 2: Mr. Grundow walking past the bean plot to the maize plot, explaining why crop rotation and using legumes to restore soil fertility is important.
Plot #4: Fertilizer applied to maize in proper quantities and at proper times
Plot # 5: Ammonia only applied to maize. Notice how this maize is much shorter then the other plots.
Trips
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