CSIR-SARI Empowers Returnees In Bawku To Go Into Farming

A number of returnees from ill-fated trips to Libya, Niger and Nigeria have taken to farming in the Bawku Municipality as a source of livelihoods.

An appropriate farming technology implemented by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research of the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI) has attracted migrants from the Bawku Municipality into the venture.

CSIR-SARI in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) periodically release new seeds varieties of crops which are mostly drought and insects resistant, high and quality yields.

This came to light when a team of CSIR-SARI and MoFA from Manga Station, led by a Senior Research Scientist of CSIR-SARI in charge of the Manga Station, Dr Francis Kusi, paid separate field visits to the CSIR-SARI project implementation communities including Gentiga No.1 and 2 in the Bawku Municipal on Tuesday .

Conducting the team to some of the farms at the Gentiga community, where some of the returnees were seen busily farming vegetables such as peppers, onions, soya beans and maize, the chief of Gentiga, Nab Bukari Issah, praised the management of CSIR-SARI for the intervention.

He said as a chief, he had seen the numerous benefits of the interventions and that explained why he had ensured that all the community members, including the youth and women groups, go into farming particularly dry season farming in the area.

The chief said apart from CSIR-SARI farming technologies attracting more of the migrants back home, majority of the community members who had adopted the technologies had put up their own houses and purchased cars as well as pay for their children’s school fees and the premium of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

He also mentioned that through the knowledge acquired from CSIR-SARI farming technologies, he had been able to farm about 46 acres of maize, three acres of pepper and two acres of onion farms and harvested about 186 maxi bags from the maize farm in the last crop season.

Dr Kusiwho commended the chief of Manga for being a change agent in the community by ensuring that all the community members adopted the appropriate farming technologies and contributed to food security.

He stressed that his outfit would continue to execute its mandate of providing farmers in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions with appropriate farming technologies to increase their food and fibre crop production based on a sustainable production systems.

Mr Issah Sugri, a post harvest technologist working with the CSIR-SARI station at Manga, took the farmers through how to preserve their food produce after harvesting to enable them sell at the right time to make gains.

Mr Asungre Peter Anabire, a research scientist working with the CSIR-SARI station at Manga, stated that among the interventions of his outfit is the periodical release of new seeds varieties of crops which are mostly drought and insects resistant and entreated the farmers to adopt the new farming technologies to increase their crop production.