USAID/IITA MIDAS project : small farms systems research in Ghana : terminal report (1980-82)

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) team developed a 6-stage SFSR model for Ghana and completed its first two stages: selecting a target area (Atebubu) and gathering diagnostic data via a farm survey. Next, a 10-ha research farm was established (after an abortive attempt) near Atebubu Training College. Activities included testing improved maize, rice, sorghum, cowpea, and groundnut varieties (several on-farm trials were also conducted); establishing a meteorological station to record air and soil temperatures and the highly irregular rainfall patterns; conducting soil surveys and classifying the soils" agronomic suitability and fertility capability; and conducting fertility trials on yam, maize, rice, groundnuts, and cowpeas. A wealth of specific technical data on these activities is provided. Unfortunately, the project"s premature termination made it inadvisable to develop packages of recommendations for farmer use, and the failure of the University of Science and Technology at Masi to assign counterparts, together with the lack of progress in training local staff (who had to endure poor service conditions) threaten the continuance of SFSR efforts after the project ceases. Other problems included lack of support staff and of infrastructure and inputs at the research site and the project"s brevity and uncertain continuation. Specific recommendations include staggering crop planting (especially of cereals); identifying suitable maize and rice varieties and alternative cowpea cultivation methods; maintaining soils by using local fertilizers, alternating agroforestry with shifting cultivation, rotating legumes with cereals, abolishing the exploitative land tenure system, planting fallows, and intensively exploiting valley bottom soils; improving production by further testing of varieties (specific strains are recommended) and of previous findings on the relation of yam mound size to mound population density; and conducting herbicide control studies. A schema for model FSR projects in Ghana concludes the report.