Food Ensure Ghana

Challenges of farming in Ghana

Approximately 1-2% of the total agricultural land in Ghana is under irrigation. The majority of farming in Ghana relies on rain-fed agriculture, which makes the sector vulnerable to climate variability and inconsistent rainfall patterns. This is one of the challenging realities contributing to Africa having some of the lowest crop yields globally. The average 2022 yield for cereals was 1.78 tons/hectare. In addition to crop irrigation limitations, fertilizers can be out of reach for many smallholder farmers. The average cost of synthetic fertilizer in Ghana in 2023 was $85-90USD/acre and it doubled in 2024. The cost and availability of fertilizer varies significantly throughout the country.  Many farmers cannot afford fertilizers or are simply unable to get their hands on it. Climate stress is also impacting African agriculture. According to the World Meteorological Organization 2022 climate report, the rate of temperature increase in Africa has accelerated in recent decades, with weather and climate-related hazards becoming more severe.

Ghana’s Savannah Zone covers seven (7) administrative regions which include; Upper West, Upper East, North East, Northern, Savannah, Bono East, and Oti regions. These regions are known to be more susceptible to climate change and variability due to their high temperatures and comparatively low annual rainfall. Agriculture is the dominant land-use activity in Ghana’s Savannah Zone.

Looming Indicators of Food Insecurity in Ghana

Despite the climate challenges faced in these regions, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s 2023 report reviewed that, the Savannah Zone is the source of 70–80% of the nation’s staple crops, which include but are not limited to sorghum, millet, maize, groundnuts, rice, yam, cowpea, bambara beans, and soya beans. The report also indicated that, there have been declines in food production since 2017. In 2023, Ghana imported $133million worth of food products to feed the growing population. The recent hikes in food prices, malnutrition among children (especially in rural areas), poverty within farming households, and food shortages in Senior High Schools and Colleges are indicators of looming food insecurity in Ghana.

Introducing BioEnsure and BioTango into Ghana

BioEnsure and BioTango are biological seed and foliar treatments containing fungal endophytes and bacteria that enable plants to withstand drought and enhance plants nutrients uptake ability. BioEnsure and BioTango are environmentally friendly microbial fertilizers that do not emit GHGs and promote biodiversity conservation since they are not synthetic chemicals. AC Research Services in partnership with Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies introduced the Food Ensure Ghana project in 2022. The project aimed at adopting cost effective climate-smart technologies to combat climate related stresses within Ghana’s Agricultural sector to attain food and nutritional security, whiles eradicating hunger and poverty.

Impact Made

Smallholder farmers were introduced to BioEnsure and BioTango (microbial fertilizers). These biological fertilizers are less costly compared to synthetic fertilizers, improve crops drought and heat resistance, and enhance plants nutrients uptake and utilization. Working with 500 small holder farmers in the Northern region of Ghana, there was a significant 34%-129% increase in farmers’ yield.  It is therefore imperative that the Food Ensure Ghana Project is extended to other climate prone regions in the Savannah Zone, the country’s food production basins to counter these challenges and facilitate the goal of the project.

Field Trials in Ghana

We were optimistic that our biological fertilizers (BioEnsure and BioTango), that specialize in conferring stress tolerance to plants, would be a good fit for the type of crops and growing conditions in Ghana. In 2022, we started with small field trials; using some of Ghana’s staple crops; maize, soy and rice. Based on significant yield increases (see below) in the small trials we expanded testing with larger field plots in 2023 and 2024. We have worked with 500 smallholder farmers in the Northern, Upper West and Bono East regions ensuring their adoption and utilization of BioEnsure and BioTango technology.

Starting with Demonstration Trials

Initial trials were done on small demonstration plots (10ft x 10ft) in the northern part of Ghana. The initial focus was to allow farmers to visualize the ability of BioEnsure to confer stress tolerance and increase yields. This was done during the dry season in Ghana and the ideal time to test for increased drought tolerance in BioEnsure treated crops. As seen in the graphs below, yield increases ranged from 35% to 129%depending on crop. Each trial had 4 treatments being measured for comparison, with 6 replications per treatment: (1) Untreated Control, (2) Fertilizer Only (standard application rate), (3) BioEnsure on seed, (4) BioEnsure foliar spray. The BioEnsure treatments were not fertilized to highlight the ability of BioEnsure to increase nutrient use efficiency (a plant’s ability to take up and utilize nutrients for optimal yields).
(For all trials below T.test p-values <.001 making them statistically significant.)

Results of our first dry season trials demonstrated the ability of BioEnsure to compensate for the fertilizer needs required by untreated plants. This could be a simple and sustainable solution to allow farmers to cut back on their use of costly fertilizers.

additional treatment. Ghana is a very dynamic country with great regional and seasonal variations. Planting was continued in the northern region, this time coming into the wet season at the beginning of Summer. This set of trials included more Ghanaian staple crops; maize, soybean, cowpea and rice. A total of 47 trials were established in 13 different villages, on 25 farms. Each crop was treated with the BioEnsure seed treatment, followed up with a foliar application of BioTango after a short period of vegetative growth. As is typical in field trials, an untreated control was done for comparison. (Fertilizer use was not compared on these trials.) As seen in the graph below, yield increases ranged from 34% to 52%depending on crop. The significant yield increases observed in the small plots and larger trials, demonstrate that our microbial inoculants work well for both dry and wet season crop cultivation.