Farmers encouraged to blend traditional and modern systems of agriculture

Professor Saa Dittoh of the UDS, Tamale Campus

Section of participants

A Lecturer at the University of Development Studies, Tamale campus, Professor Saa Dittoh has emphasized the need for farmers to blend the traditional system of agriculture with the modern and improved methods of farming to help preserve the available nutrients in the soil. 

He argued that the frequent use of agrochemicals and inorganic manure on crops often destroys the smaller living organisms in the soil and cause the soil to lose its fertility. 

Prof Dittoh is however calling on farmers to prioritize the application of organic manure and composting as measures to help sustain the rich nutrients in the soil.  

 He further encouraged best practices in modern agriculture and urged farmers to come out with more appropriate solutions that are deemed necessary to ensure high crop yield. 

Prof Dittoh was speaking at the launch of the Nabdam Participatory Video Dissemination Workshop in Bolgatanga. 

In attendance were revered chiefs including representatives of environmental research institutions from Kenya and Burkina Faso.

 Background

The participatory video dissemination workshop titled “Ti Na Nyang” which literally mean “We Can” was filmed and produced by community members from Damolgo and Sekote, both predominantly farming communities in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region. 

The video shares the story of how farmers in these communities are using home-grown sustainable solutions to address major land and environmental management challenges facing them.

 It is an outcome of an ongoing Water, Land and Ecosystems, WLE, collaborative research project jointly undertaken by the University of Development Studies and the Association of Church Development Projects, ACDEP, in Tamale with partnership from the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, CIAT, in Nairobi Kenya and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. 

The two year pilot research work is nicknamed “Improving livelihoods in landscape in the Volta Basin through strengthening farmer-led approaches to ecosystems-based management”.

 The engagement session sought to establish institutional linkages to best practices necessary to surmount the myriad of challenges facing farmers while promoting effective stakeholder collaboration in anticipation of best research outcomes. 

Mr Joseph Nchor of ACDEP is of the conviction that lessons drawn from the research project will be put to practical use to sustainably address the problems of farmers.

 The expected research outcomes, he noted, will not only be relevant to the four project areas but also to all the districts since they have the same climate change and land management issues.

The savannah areas of the country are gradually losing its rich arable farmlands to poor environmental practices including water and land pollution, soil erosion, siltation and illegal tree felling among others.

 These forms of degradation results in the destruction of soil organisms and structure as well as loss of biodiversity and decrease in soil carbon. 

Prof Saa Dittoh of the UDS however believe that the fertility of the soil can be much sustained, if farmers are given the opportunity to blend all the existing methods of farming.

Mr Joseph Nchor of ACDEP

Launching the project, the Upper East Regional Minister, Albert Abongo commended the top level researchers for exposing smallholder farmers to best solutions and also assisting them to produce participatory videos for knowledge sharing and awareness creation. 

He challenged state actors and researchers to be abreast with methods that affects the livelihood of the people in the communities so that decision making and planning will be more evidenced based and more tailored to the needs of the people.

GBC

Beware of children’s digital footprint: Media advised

 

Eric Amo, Regional GJA Chairman with other media colleagues

Gregory Dery, Child Protection and Advocacy Manager for World Vision Ghana

Media practitioners have been advised to mindful of digital footprints when reporting on child issues especially matters on child right and abuse online. 

The Executive Director of J Initiative, a youth focus NGO, Awo Aidam Amenyah, gave the advice at the opening of a two-day media training workshop on Child Protection in Bolgatanga.

 Ms Amenyah recounted the growing trend of negative reportage on child violation and other related issues without taking in consideration the long term effect they may have on victims as they grow to become adults.  

 Such reports, she noted constitute child violation and must be discarded. 

She was of the firm believe that exposing children of abuse with photos and traces of their background leaves an undesirable footprint that have the tendency of jeopardizing their future aspirations. 

Ms Amenyah, is therefore urging the mass media to show empathy when reporting on issues of child violations to safeguard their reputation.  

Campaign Coordinator of World Vision Ghana, Micah Ayo Olad,

Section of the media

 Background

Weak protective structures including poverty and social norms are considered key factors in dealing with issues of child protection.  

 These dynamics according to experts increase children’s risk to child protection and violations.

 Child neglect on the other hand, has become a common phenomenon as children of school going age are denied access to education and other opportunities that are deem necessary to their total development and social wellbeing. 

At some instances, families and particularly parents hide behind poverty and shirk their responsibilities on children. 

Victims of child neglect are sometimes exposed to lots of dangers. Others have no option than to indulge in social vices and hazardous work because their lives depend on them. 

Meanwhile, child protection seeks to guarantee rights of all children to a life free from violence, abuse, exploitation, neglect and deprivation. Anything short of these constitute child violation. 

It is for this and other reasons that World Vision Ghana is partnering the GJA to school media practitioners on their role to ensuring child protection.

 About 30 journalists and editors drawn from various media outlets in the Upper East Region attended the two day training workshop. 

They were treated on topics such as concept of human rights, National Child Protection Legal Framework, Child Online Protection as well as National Child and Family Welfare Policy among other national child right campaigns. 

This was intended to sharpen their reporting skills on children and also make issues of children more audible and visible to help influence public discourse in affecting policy implementations on children. 

 On Child online protection, it was revealed that there were some key national policy gaps that ought to be given the needed attention to enhance and protect the wellbeing of children, particularly internet users. 

As it stands now, Ghana does not have a legislation that criminalises online grooming with no domestic laws concerning cyber bullying.

 Interestingly, the country’s media landscape is flooded with alleged reports of child abuse and children with special conditions without considering the negative impact it might have on their lives as they develop from childhood to adulthood. 

 A columnist and the Executive Director of J Initiative, a grassroot youth and family focused NGO, Awo Aidam Amenyah entreated the media to exercise caution when reporting on child abuse and other related issues in order to protect their image.

In the course of the training session, media practitioners were taken through a presentation on Media and Child Protection. 

On behalf of the GJA, an Executive Member of the association, Mathew McKwame implored the media to abreast with the concepts of human rights and the children’s act to serve as a guide when reporting on issues of child abuse especially rape and defilement. 

Mr McKwame further urged the media to challenge government to come out with clear cut policies on children’s right.

Also in a presentation, the Campaign Coordinator of World Vision Ghana, Micah Ayo Olad, announced plans by his outfit to intensify efforts at ending child abuse through a five year partnership wide campaign nicknamed "Child Health Now" and "Ending Violence against Children", EVAC.

Story by Isaac Asare

  

Re-integration still a bane to tackling mental health: Basic Needs-Ghana

Mr Kingsley Kumbelim (Left)  and his Executive Director, Bernard Azuure

Civil society actors and the media have been challenged to help clear all public misconceptions associated with mental health and epilepsy. 

It has been established that mental illness is curable and in order to promote an inclusive society, persons that have successfully gone through medication and have recovered should not be rejected by family and friends. 

At a stakeholder’s forum on mental health in Bolgatanga, it was further revealed that stigmatization and stereotyping rather worsens the condition mental illness patients and should be discarded.

 A Project Officer of Basic Needs-Ghana, an NGO, Kingsley Kumbelim, said people with mental illness deserves care and attention to help bring them out of their conditions.

These, vulnerable people, he argued, equally possess skills and talents that can be harnessed to enable them contribute productively to the growth of society.  

 Mr Kumbelim therefore implored families to support relatives with mental illness in times of medication and after recovery. The forum organised by Basic Needs with funding by the DFID from the UK, saw representative of various NGOs and CSOs in attendance.

 Background

 The engagement forum organised under the auspices of Basic Needs-Ghana, afforded civil society actors the platform to deliberate on how mental health issues can be integrated into their ongoing activities with focus on women, children and the youth. 

Women and children because most often these vulnerable groups are secluded and left out of decision making processes, thereby inhibiting their capacity to contribute meaningfully to society. 

The key objective is to strengthen the existing collaboration between Basic Needs-Ghana, NGOs as well as Community Based Organisations to reach out to more civil society actors on mental health and human rights issues. 

Participants were treated to series of topics on Basic Needs model and common mental health disorders. Group discussions on integrating mental health in existing CSO activities was also held to deepen their understanding on mental health and gender based issues to be able to build synergies among themselves. 

Opening the forum, a Project Officer, Basic Needs-Ghana, Kinsley Kumbelim said mental health issues constitute a major health challenge that requires the collaboration of all, most especially health care providers and other related NGOs. 

He said over the years, Basic Needs with the support of the media and other key actors have played a leading role in enhancing access to community based mental health services which to an extent ensured a considerable reduction in symptoms of conditions in 80 percent of people under the treatment of mental health and epilepsy. 

He said inspite of the success story, stigma, discrimination and lack of family care and cooperation still poses a major challenge.

Especially in Northern Ghana, a  greater number of people with mental illness and epilepsy are found loitering on major streets with some confined by relatives due to their conditions.

 Others entrusted in the care of traditional healers suffer all forms of abuse and are treated with disdain. In an effort to effect a positive attitude towards persons with mental illness, Basic Needs Ghana has partnered institutions and agencies to champion the cause in dealing with mental illness and epilepsy. 

It has also ensured the formulation of more than 2,000 school based mental health clubs in 71 basic and junior high schools across Northern Ghana including the Volta Region. 

According to Mr Kumberlim, the move is to heighten awareness creation while reaching out to the youth. 

Giving some facts and figures on mental health, a Senior Psychiatric Nursing Officer at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, Victor Asangalisah, disclosed that mental health directly or indirectly affects every individual and that one out of every five persons in their life time is likely to experience some form of mental disorder. 

These, he noted are caused by a combination of biological, psychological and environmental factors and must be the concern of all. 

He however mentioned psychosis, depression, and intellectual disabilities as some common disorders, indicating that some can be successfully treated when given the needed attention. 

Story by Isaac Asare