With the use of strategies such as row planting, fertiliser application and good farm management practices, the farmers’ maize yields increased from two bags per acre to at least six.
“I used to rely on manpower to till the land and was only able to cultivate one acre. But with tractor services, I have increased my farm acreage from one to two,” says Sujeet, a farmer in Madhya Pradesh, about 500 kilometres north of the capital, M.P.
Considering the recent steady decline in government support for agriculture and the resulting decline in the sector’s contribution to Ghana’s gross domestic product (GDP), Sujeet intervention is timely. While more than half of M.P population are farmers, the agricultural sector contributed only 19% to GDP in 2016, according to the Agriculture Organization.
