It has been revealed that a group of scientists from Ghana and Germany are using some leguminous plant species to restore life to the country’s degraded soils, particularly in areas near mining sites.
This was experimented on an abandoned piece of land at Enumso, a farming community in the Asante Akim Central District of the Ashanti Region.
As per reports, the activities of illegal miners some six years ago rendered the land infertile.
A PhD student from the University of Hohenheim (Germany), Enoch Opoku, instead of allowing the piece of land to regain its fertility as time passed, thought of ways to accelerate the process.
“So we thought that there are some leguminous plant species that have the potential to increase soil fertility, so farmers can use the area again,” he said.
The first four leguminous plant species introduced were Pueraria phaseoloides, Gliricidia sepium, Leucaena leucocephala and Mucuna pruriens.
Mucuna, according to reports, was, however, dropped because of its annual life cycle.
Mr. Opoku told the media that “the plant species show considerable ability to fix nitrogen into the soil.”
As to how this happens, he explained that a “special soil bacterial species called Rhizobium helps the leguminous plant by extracting nitrogen from the air, while the plant helps the bacteria grow by supplying carbon.”
“It is like, the bacteria which is found in the soil invade the roots and construct rounded houses called nodules on them, through the houses, the bacteria bring nitrogen to the plant which the plant cannot ordinarily acquire on their own and the plant repays the bacteria with food which is carbon. It is a perfect interdependence,” said Mr Opoku.
A PhD student from University of Hohenheim, Nadine Sommer, preferred Acacia mangium and Leucaena leucocephala.
Though Leucaena leucocephala led in the volume of organic matter produced, Acacia mangium was superior in terms of mercury salvaging.
“Leucaena leucocephala produces much biomass, but Acacia mangium needs a bit more time to produce this biomass but it accumulates a very huge amount of mercury. It’s not a hyper accumulator but a good accumulator of mercury,” she said.
On the matter, project leader and agroecologist Prof. Dr. Frank Rasche of University of Hohenheim asserted that his team aims to develop sustainable and applicable plant-based technologies for soil fertility restoration and mercury reclamation of Ghanaian mining sites.
Under the programme “CLIENT II – International Partnerships for Sustainable Innovations” financed by the Federal Ministry of Research and Education of Germany, the Hans-Ruthenberg Institute of Agricultural Sciences in the Tropics of the University of Hohenheim and INOQ GmbH in Germany, are collaborating with the Crops Research Institute of Ghana in research and development.
Ghana’s water bodies and forest reserves are being destroyed due to the activities of illegal miners.
River Pra, Offin, Oti have all been polluted due to chemicals being used to mine illegally.
The government is currently working to nip the activities of illegal miners in the bud.
Source: The Independent Ghana