Farmers schooled on sorghum cultivation

Farmers including nucleus farmers, producers and agro-processing farmers have attended a day's training workshop on Sorghum cultivation.

The workshop equipped them with the requisite modern skills and knowledge of the cultivation of selected varieties of sorghum under the West African Sorghum Chain Development Project (WASCDP).

Technoserve, a non-profit international organization, organized the workshop which took place in Bolgatanga and attracted participants from the Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions.

Funding was from a unit within the Food Agricultural Organisation with technical support from Guinness Ghana Breweries.

The Project Manager, Mr Steven Mwinkaara, said the scheme is operational in Sierra Leone and Ghana, adding that the idea is to facilitate the production and mobilization of selected sorghum varieties for the brewing industry.

Mr. Mwinkaara revealed that currently farmers were cultivating less than one tonne per hectare of sorghum compared with other countries where they were planting between 10 tonnes per hectare.

He said that the project is intended to help farmers to improve upon the efficiency of production so that they could get more yield per hectare using the same kind of inputs and enhance their economic returns.

A Senior Programmes officer of Technoserve at the Bolgatanga Office, Anthony Adom said Technoserve's mission was to help entrepreneurial men and women in poor rural areas of the developing world to build agricultural business that generated income, opportunity and economic growth for their communities and their countries.

Source: GNA