The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) has urged farmers to step up cultivation of sorghum and soya beans which have ready market to boost their incomes.

According to MoFA, increased cultivation of soya beans is important because it also plays a key role in the poultry and livestock sector.

Mr. Francis Ennor, Upper East Regional Director of MoFA, made the call at a joint sector performance review meeting in the Upper East region, Bolgatanga. The meeting accorded participants the opportunity to discuss major interventions in the crop and livestock production sector in the region.

It also enabled participants to deliberate on the way forward in boosting performance of the government flagship program, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJs), in the region. More importantly, stakeholders also discussed ways of scaling up the performance of the program.

The theme for the meeting was ‘Consolidating the gains for Planting for food and jobs (PFJs) in the global pandemic’. It focused on how to forge agricultural production ahead in the mist of challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Ennor underscored that the “COVID-19 posed a lot of threats and taught us a lot of lessons to be food secured and self –sustaining”. He stated that farming in 2020, in spite of the floods experienced in the region, has averted a major food crisis. This is especially, with the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Increase in maize cultivation

The Regional Director noted that maize production has over taken sorghum production in the region. As such, he reiterated that farmers need to consider the ready market for sorghum and increase its production.

Providing the details, Mr. Ennor stated that maize cultivated area in 2019 was 74,418 hectares with yields of 2.17 metric tons/Ha, at a production level of 161,124 MT.

In 2020, maize was cultivated on 80,960 hectares with yields of 2.08 metric tons/Ha at a production level of 168,340 MT. Consequently, he blamed the drop in maize yields to floods experienced last year.

Meanwhile, he revealed that the cultivated area for sorghum in Upper East in 2019 and 2020 was 57,322 hectares and 56,369 hectares respectively. This resulted in yields of 1.37 metric tons/Ha and 1.29 metric tons/Ha respectively. He added that the production levels of sorghum were 78,365 MT in 2019 and 72,539 MT in 2020.

Major interventions
The Regional Director of MoFA for the region further outlined several interventions that his outfit rolled out last year. Key among them included improved access of farmers to mechanized services including ploughing, harrowing, threshing and carting.

According to him, 26,861 farmers were supported and out of the number, 37 percent were females in 2020. This compares to 16,259 farmers of which 24 percent were females in 2019.

Under the PFJs, he indicated that farmers were provided subsidized inputs that resulted in improved yields. He detailed that 9,744 males and 3,318 females were supported with agrochemicals for the control of FAW.

This, according to him, reduced the incidence and impact of pests last year. With regards to pest invasion, he indicated that 9,006ha of farmlands were affected in 2020 as compared to 19,268.8ha in 2019.

Also, he added that a total of 25,921 farmers, including 17,091 males and 8,830 females, benefitted from livestock technologies. soya beans soya beans