AFRICAN SOIL HEALTH CONSULTANTS AND SAVANNAH AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE ON RICE SHOP

Rice is an important cash crop in Ghana, However production is not as high as it should be, and such yields are low. Farmers often apply inappropriate agricultural management practices at the wrong time; often the rice that is growing is from cycle seeds which are of low quality.
There is also a shortage of organic matter in the soil and farmers don’t correct this problem .the rice program at the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute[SARI] in Ghana has been working on technologies that can rise farmers to increase crop yields and improve livelihood.
These however have been a long term challenge for agricultural science organizations to translate their expertise into farmer friendly information. Farmers have limited information on the best ways to manage their fields. To meet these challenges the African soil health consultants with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is working with Agricultural Value Chain mentorship project to find the best ways to package information for small holder farmers growing rice.
The Agricultural Value Chain mentorship project is made up of SARI, IFDC and GABIC. The African soil health consultants in collaboration with SARI conducted a rice shop in march 2013.The objective of the rice shop was to work with scientist, agricultural extentionist, farmers and communication personnel to create farmer friendly rice communication materials .20 delegates worked to clarify priority messages for rice farmers in northern Ghana.
The rice shop kicked off with a field visit, which it’s aim was to understand the challenges of farmers in access to information. This was followed by brain storming sections by the participants in order to determine the messages and formats that would be most appropriate. Posters flip shots and scripts are some of the outputs form the 4 days workshop. These materials can be adopted for future wider range messages.

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