Farming they say is the predominant activity in the North for many homes, not only are farmers in the business. Now the educated have taken over the business since they have huge capital to invest into farming and afford high variety of seeds and fertilizer for their farms. The Upper West and more specifically the Sissala area is known for the cultivation of high quality maize, soya and yam, they also farm sesame and sometimes millet.

Savannah agricultural research institute (CSIR-SARI) a subsidiary of the Ministry of Environment Science and Technology and Innovation is known for the introduction of new varieties of seeds with high yielding capacity and modern farming technologies for small and commercial farming, the unit has introduced Highbridge seeds for many crops in Ghana especially maize and Sorghum. It was on this backdrop that on the 3rd December 2024 (CSIR-SARI) organized some farmers to visit some selected farms in Nankpawie, the selection of Nankpawie was due to their cooperating nature in the area of adopting new farming techniques.

Yesterday a total of 122 selected farmers from Nankpawie were taken to the farm, the essence of the farm visit was to Strengthen their capacities in the area of harvesting and post hatvest handling of cereals, access how the farming of Sorghum in the county was done. The farmers were taken through a Sorghum farm in the community to observe the nature of the crop and how it was planted, the farmers after observing the Sorghum farm were made to share their observations from the farm. The farmers enumerated the practices they observed from the farm and were ready to learn things.

Mr. Haruna Ali who represented (CSIR-SARI) director Dr. Francis Kusi was at the training to interact with the farmers and train them, it was at this training he then introduced the new variety of Sorghum to the farmers called Atokple-Chi. Mr. Haruna said it was a high yielding variety with high quality, he said the new variety was resistant to insects infestation. He also said the new variety comes in different colours, white and red, and that the new variety was made from the local variety their great grandparents used to cultivate.

Mr. Haruna spoke about the availability of the new seeds next year, the market for the crop since MAYLOTTE was partnering with CSIR-SARI to buy the crop from the farmers. He said if farmers register they will have direct access to the new seed.

The farmers were grateful to the project and was calling for them to bring the seeds early so that they could plan for it, mr. Majeed Wazaa who spoke to the news team said the community was grateful the company chose their village and promised to help the project succeed. Madam lady Fuseini who also spoke to the news team said, they as women were happy when they heard the company was coming to their community and that they will cultivate the crop since they could not afford money to buy fertilizer to apply on their maize farms.

Source: Bashiru Jinapor/ Radford FM