Players in the agricultural sector across Africa say the continent and the globe are racing against time to ensure the restoration of landscape to prevent possible food crises and heightened disasters due to the increasing degradation of the environment.
It is on this score that The Global Landscape Forum-Bawku, a group of environmentally-minded people with the goal of restoring schools, communities, farms, and landscapes to provide multiple benefits to the environment and people, is engaging farmers in Upper East Region on ways to restore the environment.
The organization also carries out restoration education in schools, trains farmers and communities in tree seed collection, and establishes tree nurseries for landscape restoration activities.
Engagements have been conducted with farmers and communities on sustainable landscape management through dialogues for the improvement of livelihoods and sustainable farming practices.
As part of the group’s duty call, the chapter hosted ‘’GLF-Nairobi’, a conference in Nairobi, Kenya, through live streaming where smallholder farmers in Vea in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region had the opportunity to listen to experts from GLF-Nairobi via online talk about sustainable landscape practices that will change the food system and restore landscapes through an African-led solution.
The chapter coordinator, Daniel Debrah in an interview with Dreamz News on the sidelines of the online engagement in Vea, says farmers should embrace and increase the use of organic fertilizer.
He gave a presentation on trees on farms for resilient agriculture, with an emphasis on the priorities of local tree species for farm restoration and livelihood improvement.
Mr. Debrah expressed fears that continued use of fertilizer as it currently pertains will eventually lead to a serious decline in crop yield.
“Farmers have become so addicted to the use of fertilizer and they don’t really test the soil to know what is deficient and the misuse or wrong application of chemical fertilizer kills soil biodiversity. So, we’re advocating that farmers should use more organic fertilizer.
If you look at the situation on the ground, the soil is no longer supporting the farming system very well, so we have gotten to the crossroads and pushed the earth beyond its planetary boundaries, and the time has come for us to sit up.”
.” He emphasized.
The farmers were hopeful that even though the environment is degraded and the planet is overstretched beyond its planetary boundaries, the soil can be regenerated by ensuring sustainable farming practices like the use of manure, limiting agrochemical use, and agroforestry and agroecology practices and the planting of trees. Activities, they have committed to now engaging in.
