According to them, for agriculture in Ghana to thrive, agronomists, who are experts in soil management and crop production, were needed to impact on the work of farmers so as to increase production and reduce the rate of crop diseases.

They noted, however, that the training of agronomists was faced with challenges such as the lack of teaching materials, library and research facilities, demonstration farms and accommodation for students.

The students made the suggestion at the launch of the Agronomy Students Association (AGROSA) at the Nyankpala campus of UDS.

The Dean of the Graduate School of the UDS, Dr Israel K. Dzomeku, who spoke on the theme: “Overcoming the challenges of Food Crop Production in Northern Ghana – The Role of Agronomists,” observed that the greatest challenge to sustainable food crop production in northern Ghana was extreme poverty.

He said,sustainable food crop production required the use of modern farm implements which many farmers in northern Ghana could not afford.

Dr Dzomeku called for efforts to be made to ensure that farmers in northern Ghana did all-year-round food production in order to meet the growing demands of the nation.

For his part, the Deputy Northern Regional Director of Agriculture, Mr Yakubu Stephen, noted that the high cost of food crop production was a factor that was hampering sustainable food crop production in northern Ghana.

He stated that the cost of ploughing an acre of land as at last year was GH¢30 which was far above the means of many farmers, “especially as ploughing is done during the lean season.”


Mr Stephen said the high cost of labour and fertiliser served as a disincentive to commercial farming.

He, therefore, suggested the use of animal traction for ploughing and compost manure to replace fertiliser since these methods were less expensive.

One of the founding members of the association, Mr Yayra Amekli, said that with agriculture going to be the main component of SADA, the government should ensure that people with the necessary expertise in agriculture were employed to manage that component.

“The success of SADA will not depend only on the quantity of tractors and combine harvesters supplied, but also on the knowledge that agronomists will bring to bear on the whole programme,” he observed.