Hoeschle-Zeledon, Irmgard

Larbi, Asamoah

CGSpace

  Brief 24    Transforming African agriculture through sustainable intensification                  June 2015    Africa RISING intervention communities in northern Ghana  The Africa RISING project is being implemented in the three northern regions of Ghana – Northern, Upper East and Upper West. Selection of communities was led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in collaboration with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) in consultation with local authorities.  IFPRI identified regional domains using the length of growing period and market access (Figure 1).                   Thereafter, IITA and MoFA staff visited potential communities in the Northern (33), Upper West (16) and Upper East  regions (12) and selected 25 intervention communities                   These were selected based on consultations with the local authorities on agricultural potential, accessibility during the rainy season, crop-livestock farming system, rainfed versus irrigated rice farming and market access.  Figures 2 and 3 show the 25 communities in relation to the agro-ecology and poverty levels in Ghana.                   Figures 4-6 (next page) show the number of hamlets in each intervention community in 2013.                                     Interventions The project is implementing the following activities:   Testing and dissemination of improved crop varieties (drought and Striga resistant, high yielding, short/medium/long duration multi-purpose crops) and livestock breeds (dairy goats and sheep);   Land, soil and water management (prevention of water logging, appropriate and optimal water and land use options for minimizing soil erosion, and dry season irrigation);   Appropriate agronomic practices (planting density, cereal-legume-vegetable intercropping, crop diversification, and agroforestry) and animal husbandry practices (semi-intensive and intensive management, dry season feed supplementation, vaccination and deworming);   Value-addition, reducing pre- and postharvest losses; linking farmers to input and output markets; as well as ensuring better integration of the crop and livestock enterprises.   Figure 1: Africa RISING regional domains in Ghana Figure 2: Poverty levels in Ghana across different regions Figure 3: Agro-ecological zones  The Africa Research In Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) program comprises three research-for-development projects supported by the United States Agency for International Development as part of the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative.   Through action research and development partnerships, Africa RISING will create opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty through sustainably intensified farming systems that improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve or enhance the natural resource base.  The three projects are led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (in West Africa and East and Southern Africa) and the International Livestock Research Institute (in the Ethiopian Highlands). The International Food Policy Research Institute leads an associated project on monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment.  Prepared by: Asamoah Larbi (a.larbi@cgiar.org) and Irmgard Hoeschle-Zeledon (i.hoeschle-zeledon@cgiar.org)    africa-rising.net    This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence  Group and individual training are being used to strengthen the capacities of all actors in production, processing, marketing and utilization.   Capacity building on communication is also done to encourage farmer-to-farmer learning and extension.   Academic trainees at MSc and PhD level are engaged to address important knowledge gaps and to build national research capacity.         Figure 4:  Northern Region Figure 6: Upper East Region Figure 5: Upper West Region 

Africa RISING intervention communities in northern Ghana

https://cgspace.cgiar.org/bitstream/10568/67927/1/AR_Brief24.pdf

Africa RISING intervention communities in northern Ghana

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