John farms into prosperity thanks to Regreening Africa Project
John Akurugu is a 42-year old subsistence farmer from Yelewoko community in Bawku West district in the Upper East region of Ghana. He is married with four daughters, and cultivates maize, guinea corn cowpea and rice on his plot of land.
He notes that "during land preparation, we would gather all farm residues, clear emerging shrubs and burn them to have a clean plot for sowing, and this did not give us good yield if we do not apply chemical fertiliser. However, things changed when World Vision introduced the Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) concept to us in which I was one of the lead farmers”.
John and farmers like him were educated on the importance of having trees and shrubs on their farms, and on the adverse effects of burning farm residues during land preparation. "We understood that we were getting poor yields because of those practices, which made it impossible to feed our families from one harvesting season to another", he shares.
He continues: "Through FMNR under the Regreening Africa Project, we were taught how to prune shrubs on our farmlands to improve soil fertility and increase tree density on our farms. We were also taught by the project on how to prepare compost manure from farm residues and kitchen waste so that we do not have to burn the residues again since the burning is injurious to the soil. I took particular interest in the compost preparation since I was made to believe I do not have to struggle for money for chemical fertiliser if I have enough compost”.
John started preparing compost with any organic materials he could lay his hands on. He would then always spread it on his farm during land preparation. "Though I reduced the number of bags of chemical fertiliser used, the yields increased and now I do not use the chemical fertility again”, he tells us.
On a three-acre plot of land where John would grow maize, he would only get three bags (300 kilograms) of maize. With the application of appropriate land preparation and compost, he now gets nine bags (900 kilograms) of maize from the same piece of land without any chemical fertilisers.
There is now more than enough to feed John's household from one growing season to the other. He sold some of his farm produce to delve into rearing, and now owns 30 guinea fowls, six hens with 15 chicks, three cocks, four sheep, five goats and 10 rabbits. He was able to sell some of his guinea fowl eggs last year, and joined a savings group which the project introduced him to.
John happily concludes: "As a member of a savings group, I borrowed and added money to buy bullocks and implements to increase my production. Thanks to World Vision and the Regreening Africa Project, we have overcome poverty!"