Tamale, Sept. 23, GNA - In addition to the erratic rainfall pattern experienced in the three northern regions, the area's soil is also very low in plant nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus, the Ministry Food and Agriculture (MOFA) said on Monday.

Speaking at an international conference on increasing water productivity of rain-fed cropping systems, Mr. Sylvester Adongo, Northern Regional Director of MOFA estimated that native soil in the area could supply only 20 percent of nutrient requirement, adding that production without soil amendment was not profitable.

The forum was a collaborative initiative by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Savanna Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) and the Challenge Program on Water and Food. Attending the conference were some 40 participants from 18 countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America. They were expected to deliberate on in-field water harvesting and conservation impacts of soil, as well as residue management on land and water productivity. Mr. Adongo said maize in particular could not grow well in Northern Ghana without fertilizer application. He suggested that any rainwater harvesting programme earmarked for cropping in the area should have a soil fertility component in order to be effective.

He said it was in recognition of this that the government provided subsidies on fertilizer to the tune of eleven million dollars for the 2008 cropping season. The subsidy, he added, was critical to farmers, especially smallholder rural croppers.

He said recently, 75,680 farmers in the Northern Region purchased 6,608 metric tons of assorted fertilizers to enhance their productivity, noting that this was a major departure from the past where only few farmers applied fertilizer to their crops. Mr. Adongo was optimistic that with this year's good rains, food production would exceed demand and there would be surpluses, except for a few communities that had been inundated by floods in the Upper East and Northern Regions.

He bemoaned large scale importation of cheap rice and other agricultural produce into the Ghanaian market, saying these and other challenges such as the lack of efficient farmer cooperative arrangements, and lack of access to credit and market opportunities undermined efforts to develop the sector. Dr. Stephen Nutsugah, acting Director of CSIR and SARI, said the two institutions had developed two new high yielding 67-day cowpea varieties, namely Apagbaala and Marfo-Tuya for distribution to farmers. He said the project had also introduced the construction of 96 low cost ferro-cement water reservoirs to poor households in Northern Ghana as options for storing rainwater. He said some 40 households in eight districts were currently using the product.