SLAM SCHOOLS FARMERS ON LAND USE (PAGE 39)

SUSTAINABLE Land Administrative Management (SLAM), a body consisting of scientists who have specialised on land management dedicated to the preservation of the ecology, at the weekend, organised a seminar at Koforidua to educate farmers on how best to maintain the ecology of the Eastern Region.
The exercise which forms part of SLAMS’ four-year programme to preserve the ecology, brought together 40 farmers drawn from four districts in the region, namely Atiwa, Upper Manya Krobo, Fanteakwa and Akuapem South.
It was funded jointly by the government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Addressing the participants, the Co-ordinator of SLAM, Professor Edwin A. Gyasi, said since the ecology was being destroyed at an alarming rate, it had become necessary to educate land users, especially farmers, on modern farming practices for the sustenance of the ecology.
Professor Gyasi who took the participants through the various rudiments of environmental preservation, named several factors such as poverty, lack of land policy, weak institutional capacity and inflexible traditional land tenure system as the factors which destroyed the ecology.
He advised the participants to adhere to good farming practices.
Prof Gyasi stated that although Ghana had not been seriously affected by the global warming that was melting the iceberg in the polar region, most of the vegetation cover in the country as well as water bodies were being destroyed.
He stressed that unless land users, especially farmers adhered to good farming practices, the environment would be destroyed in such a way that it would be difficult for future generations to live.
Professor Gyasi, therefore, urged the participants not only to put to practice what they had learnt at the seminar, but must also teach their colleagues in the various communities the best farming practices.
In her welcome address, the acting Southern Sector Co-ordinator of SLAM, Miss Dina Afua Kobe Appiah stated that studies had shown that 70 per cent of the land in Ghana had been subjected to severe erosion.
She said that had been the leading factor undermining productivity in agriculture, loss of biodiversity through deforestation and land degradation, amounting to four per cent of the GDP.
According to her, that could be mainly attributed to tremendous pressure from human population which had been on the rise yearly.
SLAM, she said, had therefore strived, among others, to heal the degraded lands and improve agricultural production to enhance food security.