Farmers urged to focus on proper maintenance of farms

An Agronomist has urged cashew farmers and agricultural extension officers to focus on the proper maintenance of farms and the improvement in cashew production.

Mr S. Osei-Akoto of the Crop Research Institute of Ghana noted that improper attention by some farmers was a major problem causing the low production of the crop.

He was speaking at the close of a three-day sensitization workshop at Wenchi for 58 farmers and extensions officers drawn from Tain District and Wenchi Municipality.

The workshop was to update the knowledge and skills of the participants in top-up techniques to enable farmers to achieve expected yield at the end of the season.

It was organized by the Cashew Development Project of Ghana in collaboration with the Crop Research Institute of Ghana and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).

Mr Osei-Akoto noted that despite the importance of cashew, its production still remained very low, adding, “the average yield per tree is as low as 2.0kg per year as against the expected target of 8kg to 20kg”.

He appealed to farmers to work harder to help improve production of cashew and called on the participants to share the knowledge they had acquired at the workshop with their colleagues.

The participants were taken through topics including rehabilitation of unproductive matured farms, pests and diseases control, harvesting and post harvesting, top-working, and preparation of cashew apple drink.