Composting to Improve Degradable Lands towards Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change Adaptation in Nabdam and Talensi Districts of the Upper East Region of Ghana.

Degradation of farmlands in the Upper East Region of Ghana has become a great menace to food security as the year proceeds. This results in fertile lands being depleted of all organic matter and nutrients that support plant growth. The practice of farming around households built in lands is seriously practiced hence continuous cropping on the same land each year. Various methods of land reclamation such as afforestation are still being practiced but not yielding the needed results due to continuous cropping over the same land year in year out. This paper sorts to discuss one specific composting method adopted within seven communities of the UER to obtain compost materials for plant growth. A number of composting methods is practiced by farmers within these communities to improve the fertility of their lands. Some of the methods employed includes the pit method, the pile method, composting barrels, sheet composting, compost piled in a structure etc. The last technique is piloted during the study to obtain the nutrients and assess its potential in improving the soil fertility. This specific method explains the composting process and how the finest compost material is obtained for application on farmlands. Precipitations needed for decomposition of carbonated and nitrogenous materials on farmlands are of lesser quantities. This keeps the soil almost dry always resulting in vast areas of degradable lands and low crop yields each season. Research findings indicates that, fine rich black compost of 97% nutrients potency was obtained to improve soil fertility. When used on farmlands, it increased yields by 90% as compared to previous years as indicated by the farmers of around 80%. Practicing this composting technique has increased interest in composting by farmers by 75% in the seven piloted communities within the Nabdam and Talensi district of the Upper East region of Ghana.