Challenges of farming in Sub-Saharan Africa
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As a continent much of Africa has enormous growing challenges. Only 6% of arable land in Africa is irrigated. A powerful statistic that means the other 94% of land is either dependent on rainfall or likely growers hauling well water to keep crops viable. This is one of the challenging realities responsible for Africa having some of the lowest crop yields globally. The average 2022 yield for cereals was 1.78 tons per hectare compared to more than 8 tons/hectare in North America and Europe.
On top of the challenge of crop irrigation, fertilizers can be out of reach for many small landholders due to cost and availability, both of which can vary considerably. The average cost in Ghana in 2023 was 30-35 USD per acre and that number doubled in 2024! Many farmers cannot afford fertilizers or are simply unable to get their hands on it. Climate stress is only accelerating. 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. |
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Desertification in Ghana
Farmers in Ghana have another foreboding challenge, the desertification of their land. Desertification can have many causes such as overgrazing, deforestation, urbanization and climate change. It leads to a loss of soil fertility, biodiversity and can greatly reduce water tables making land hardly suitable for agriculture purposes. In the last 30+ years there has been a visible increase in the amount of desertification happening throughout northern Ghana. This degradation of land puts farmers at even higher risk of crop failure if decreased soil fertility and water sources become the norm. |
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Field Trials in Ghana
In 2022 we were fortunate to start collaborating with AC Research Services, a Ghanian research organization (based in Tamale) dedicated to finding sustainable solutions to Africa's agricultural challenges. We were optimistic that our microbes, that specialize in conferring stress tolerance to plants, would be a good fit for the type of crops and growing conditions in Ghana. We started with small field trials; using some of Ghana's staple crops; maize, soy and rice. We were impressed by the results. 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.) |
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*Untreated and Treated photos were taken on the same day and no photo manipulation was done.
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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.g
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Continuing with Larger Trials
Based on the success of the first demonstration trials our team decided to scale up and out. The team at AC Research collaborated with numerous growers to independently test our microbes again, this time adding in our bacterial product, BioTango, as an 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. 
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