Comprising of eight million hectares, the savannah zone covers about 54 per cent of the country, making it a hot cake for foodstuff production.

Strangely, however, a vast part of that landmass continues to waste away, in spite of its enormous potential for the production of staple crops such as maize, millet, groundnuts and soybean and the rearing of livestock.

While this resource wastes away, the country spends an average of $1 billion annually to import food crops that can easily be produced in the area.

Additionally, the three regions in the northern part of Ghana, which occupy this part of the country, have been saddled with the highest poverty rates.

Wasting opportunities

This calls into question the country’s ability to turn its potential into opportunities that can help address teething development challenges.

Take soybean as an example. Although a key ingredient for Ghana’s struggling poultry industry, the production of the crop is roughly around 60,000 metric tons (MT) compared to an annual demand of 150,000 MT.

This leaves a shortfall of 90,000MT that is now met by imports from Brazil and the United States.

The same applies to maize, which is also key in the chicken feed production equation. Maize occupies 31 per cent of all land in Ghana and is the most important crop that makes up for at least a third of the staple diet of Ghanaians. In spite of this importance, yields of maize are low, averaging from 1.5 MT/Ha to 2.5 MT/Ha.

This is attributed to the lack of comprehensive and new approaches to increase the output of the local farmer in the savannah zone.

TASI to the rescue

To help address these challenges and properly exploit the potential of the savannah zones in Africa, the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) has devised the Transformation of the African Savannah Initiative (TASI) which seeks to transmit the experiences of the Brazilian system and conservation agriculture to Africa to help create a thriving food production sector in the continent.

It is to help convert the yawning opportunities in the abundant African savannahs to help achieve the second major success of tropical agriculture in the world.

Fortunately, Ghana has been chosen among seven other countries to pilot the first phase of its transformation initiative.

Consequently, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) has taken the lead role by collaborating with the AfDB to pilot TASI in selected areas.

The collaboration is being supported by the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), which is leading the transformation of the country’s savannah zone.

The pilot phase will aim to create farms from some 100,000 hectares in the zone for soybean, maize, and other crops. The crops are to be produced optimally using the best technologies.

The TASI Ghana Pilot Project is due to be launched today in Accra to pave the way for the proper implementation to take off.

Ahead of the launch at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, the Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Sagre Bambangi, has already led a group of foreign investors to selected parts in the savannah zone, where they were exposed to the investment opportunities.

It is expected that the pilot project will introduce the AfDB’s approach to development of the African Savanna on a test scale to demonstrate commercial conservation agriculture systems in Ghana and also to set the stage for replication of the experience in the other seven African countries.

The Chief Executive Officer of SADA, Mr Charles Abugre, said the launch would present the idea to investors who have been exploring investment opportunities in the savannah zone.

He said the project was timely, given that “it fits well into the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs (PFAJ)’ programme.

He has, therefore, commended the deputy minister for his commitment to the project and expressed the confidence that its implementation would help serve the needs of the economy.