Voices from the field: Kusi Adams, Ghana

To the unknowing eye, what Kusi Adams does in order to choose what land to plant on might look strange.

He peers carefully at the different vegetation — weeds to most — to see what is growing. He also looks closely at the ground to see if he can find traces of millipedes and centipedes — insects most people try to avoid.

What the 42-year-old is trying to determine is how good the land near his home in Aworopata is for maize production, a skill he learned from the Farm Radio program on Astor FM.

“I don’t go and just start farming on the land like I used to, where at the end of the day I wouldn’t get anything,” Kusi says. “Now, I know all the qualities of a good site for maize production. It’s helped me get a good yield.”

Site selection isn’t the only new technique Kusi has used on his six-acre maize farm. He also has started planting in rows, and using improved seed.

“I’m happy now that I can get a good yield from my farm,” he says.

The radio program that Kusi listens to is made possible through USAID’s  New Alliance ICT Extension Challenge Fund. This project focuses on using a scalable, integrated suite of ICT-based services to cost-effectively drive behaviour change and help Ghanaian farmers increase their yields of six target crops (maize, rice, soybean, cassava, yam, and cowpeas), thereby improving food security. 

Tara Sprickerhoff
About the author  
Tara Sprickerhoff is a recent graduate of Carleton University’s Bachelor of Journalism program. She spent the summer of 2015 working in Accra, Ghana, as a journalism intern with Farm Radio International, and recently returned to continue on. Tara aspires to one day work in radio herself, as she is happiest when she is able to give others a voice to share their own stories and passions.

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