Adako-jachie: Stakeholders, including cassava farmers and agricultural extension agents, have held a two-day workshop to validate translated 'AKILIMO' (cassava planting) materials, from English into Ewe and Twi languages. The 'AKILIMO' innovation concept was developed by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), purposely for educating farmers on how to use smart farming practices in cassava production to enhance yields.
According to Ghana News Agency, printable guides, worksheets, and postcards, which summarize the overview of production, have been translated into these local languages. Each translated material contains fertilizer use recommendations, best planting practices, weed management, schedule planting, high start techniques, and intercropping cassava with maize. The event was attended by selected cassava farmers and extension officers from Ashanti, Volta, Oti, Bono, Bono-East, Central, and Savannah Regions.
Dr. Thompson Ogunsanmi, Scaling Specialist and Akilimo Coordinator for Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania, explained at the opening of the validation workshop at Adako-Jachie near Ejisu, in the Ashanti Region, that agricultural extension agents were involved in translating the AKILIMO materials. The purpose was to co-create these materials with some of the end-users (farmers) to allow beneficiaries to contribute to fine-tuning the translated materials. He emphasized that the translation was necessitated by participatory dissemination on the field, where farmers' feedback showed an urgent need for better interpretation of these farming manuals, which were originally in English.
Dr. Ogunsanmi also mentioned that the next step would involve presenting the translated materials in video format for farmers. He added that farmers have proposed integrating AKILIMO concepts into the production of other crops, including rice and maize.
Madam Yaa Pokuaa, Principal Agricultural Officer at the Ashanti Regional Department of Agriculture, stated that the main aim of the validation was to assess whether the translated materials were farmer-friendly. She believed that access to these translated materials would impact and promote best farm technologies and practices of AKILIMO.
Mr. Michael Amu, Agricultural Extension Officer at the Department of Agriculture in the Mampong Municipality, noted that AKILIMO aims to address challenges in cassava production, such as the low educational background of some farmers. By translating the concepts into languages that farmers can best understand, the workload on extension officers would be reduced significantly, allowing farmers to implement the concepts with minimal guidance.
Ms. Fredericka Selasie, a cassava farmer from Dzodze, observed that the interpreted procedures would help her grow her crops more effectively and increase yields compared to using uncertain techniques.
