GHANA
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Overview of SRI in Ghana
The earliest discussions of SRI in Ghana took place during 2001/2002 visits by Norman Uphoff. During 2007-08, the Japanese development consulting firm Nippon Koei carried out a study for JICA that resulted in some SRI trials in the Ashaiman Irrigation Scheme east of Accra, under the management of the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA). Though these early trials met with setbacks, Shuici Sato, who had worked with SRI in Indonesia, was invited by the Chief Executive of Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA) during 2009 to provide additional information on SRI to GIDA staff.
Kwabena Adu Broni, a farmer who began experimenting with SRI in 2007, reported on successful SRI evaluations in Ghana at Aboso-Odumase in the Western Region in 2009. After learning about SRI from a World Vision colleague, he was further advised by Mustapha Ceesay, who had did his dissertation at Cornell University on SRI in The Gambia.
During 2009-2011, the General Agriculture Worker’s Union in collaboration with ActionAid Ghana has supported farmers in implementing SRI on a pilot basis under the Asutware Rice Irrigation Project and the Ashiaman Rice Irrigation Project. According to an article in the Ghana News Agency, on October 27, 2011, rice farmers operating under the Kpong Irrigation Project at Asutware in the Eastern Region called on the Government of Ghana to adopt SRI as a policy to help increase rice production in the country.
Progress and Activities
2011 Updates
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After Three Years of SRI in Two Irrigation Projects, Farmers Call on
Goverment to Include SRI in Rice Production Policy
The General Agriculture Worker's Union in collaboration with ActionAid Ghana has supported farmers in implementing SRI under the Asutware Rice Irrigation Project and the Ashiaman Rice Irrigation Project to promote sustainable agriculture. The Union had in the past three years trained and supported farmers operating under these irrigation projects to implement the SRI on pilot basis. According to an article by Mokpokpor Anku, an evaluation of SRI aimed to identify and collate the experiences of farmers and identify areas that needed to be supported towards the implementation of SRI.
- A similar article by the Ghana News Agency added that rice farmers operating under the Kpong Irrigation Project at Asutware in the Eastern Region, on October 27, 2011, called on the Government of Ghana to adopt SRI as a policy to help increase rice production in the country. Moses Guamah, National Best Irrigation Rice Farmer told Ghana News Agency at Asutware that the cost of production under the SRI was low when compared with the conventional method of rice production in Ghana. He explained that under the SRI, farmers were expected to apply organic matter, which could result in yield of between 30 and 35 bags of rice per acre as compared with at most 30 bags of rice per acre with the application of fertilizer. Akpoka Philip, the Eastern Regional Best Rice farmer, also appealed to the various rice farmers’ cooperatives in the Asutware area to solicit loans to establish mechanized centers to facilitate their farming activities.
2009 Updates
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Ghana Joins the 'SRI Club'
Kwabena Adu Broni has reported on the first SRI evaluation in Ghana, at Aboso-Odumase in the Western Region, a very humid area with little
tradition of rice-growing
and where usual rice yields are usually very low. He planted half a hectare
(5,000 m2) and harvested 2.2 tons of paddy with 20% moisture content.
Recalculating this to 14% moisture content gives a yield of 2.09 tons, or 4.18
t/ha. He sent a series of pictures of the crop at
different stages of growth, from 40 days to 94 days. The tillering was very
good, ranging from 54 to 85 tillers, Kwabena reports.With friends and neighbors, Kwabena has formed the Future 12000 Farmers Union Trust for Rice Employment. Profits from the first year's crop were used to buy 1,000 day-old chicks to start a sideline business that could also provide chicken manure for the rice fields. Unfortunately, 600 of these died in the first few days. However, the group plans to continue working with the SRI methods, with more land made available by the traditional local authority.
Kwabena learned about SRI from a World Vision colleague who worked with CIIFAD under the Natural Resource Management and Sustainable Agriculture Partnership (NARMSAP). He got his initial information about SRI from the SRI website and email correspondence starting in 2003 and conducted a small SRI trial in 2007. Later that year he had a visit from Dr. Mustapha Ceesay, director of research for the National Agricultural Research Institute of The Gambia. Kwabena credits his success this past season to the agronomic guidance that Mustapha was able to give him, based on Mustapha's work with SRI methods in The Gambia starting in 2000. (See The Gambia page for further information).
Kwabena Broni in his SRI field from seedbed to maturity
(click on the pictures to enlarge)
Kwabena Broni in his SRI nursery
SRI crop at 40 days
SRI crop at 72 days
SRI crop at 85 days
SRI crop at 94 days
Broni with mature SRI field
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SRI Lecture at GIDA by Visitor from Nippon Koei Indonesia
Project
In January 2009, Shuichi Sato, who had supported SRI evaluation and
dissemination in
Eastern Indonesia 2002-2008 as Nippon Koei team leader for the Decentralized
Irrigation System Improvement Project (see DISIMP data), visited Ghana for Nippon
Koei. At the invitation of the Chief Executive of Ghana Irrigation Development
Authority (GIDA) he gave a special lecture on SRI to 27 GIDA staff (shown at
right). There is now more interest, given economic conditions and needs, in
SRI, so the agency intends to pursue SRI evaluation, possibly now with JICA
assistance.
2007-2008 Updates
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SRI Trials Carried Out in the Ashaiman Irrigation Scheme East of
Accra
During 2007-08, the Japanese development consulting firm Nippon Koei carried out a study for JICA on the promotion of domestic rice production in Ghana. Some trials of SRI methods were carried out in the Ashaiman Irrigation Scheme east of Accra, under the management of the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA). But unfortunately, these trials got flooded out because the site had not been selected well.
2001-2002
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Norman Uphoff Visits Irrigation Facilities in Ghana
In January 2001, Norman Uphoff gave a seminar on SRI at the Irrigation Development Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, and in December 2002, he visited a French-supported Lowland Rice Development Project based in Tamale in the north, where several farmers at associated irrigation schemes expressed interest in trying SRI. However, no follow-up was subsequently carried out.
Reports and Articles
- 2011. Rice farmers ask Government to adopt SRI. Ghana News Agency website. November 1. [Similar Nov. 2 article also carried in the Ghana Busines News.]
- Anku, Mokpokpor. 2011. Rice farmers ask Government to adopt farming system. SpyGhana, October 31.
