The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Crops Research Institute (CSIR CRI), as part of efforts to ensure food security and sustainable agriculture practices in Ghana, has introduced new technologies for onward adoption.

The technology dubbed, Innovative Research and Extension Advisory Hub (IREACH), aims to showcase innovations to boost crop value chain adoption and improve food security, under the auspices of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the West and Central African Council for Research and Development (CORAF) and Kansas University.

These technologies were driven from maize, cowpea, peanut and root and tuber crops such as yam, cassava, sweet potato, cocoyam and taro and a range of seeds, good agronomic practices through post harvest technologies.

Beneficiaries of the programme are farmers, agriculture extension officers, seed companies, agro-input suppliers, international agencies and the government as well. A total of 21 technologies are being showcased with plans for the establishment of training sites to train stakeholders all year round.

Professor Moses Mochiah, Director, CSIR CRI, at the launch of the project at Fumesua in the Ejisu Municipality of Ashanti Region, noted that the Institute is a pre-eminent and largest of CSIR institution, envisioned to become the first centre of excellence for innovation and quality agricultural research for development. The programme further seeks to showcase ready-to go agricultural technologies from the West Africa sub-region.

Technologies for High Food and Industrial Crop Production

Professor Moses Mochiah indicated that the CRI is, therefore, developing and disseminating appropriate technologies for high and sustaining food and Industrial crop production at both national and international levels. He noted that the Institute has strived to improve its human and infrastructure capacity to develop and deliver high-quality agriculture research products and services.

“The Institute trains and creates opportunities for training scientists, technologies and staff of the institute, which seeks to enhance their competencies to conduct quality research and technology innovation.”
Moses Mochiah

Prof. Mochiah, meanwhile, pledged to collaborate effectively with organizations to develop appropriate agricultural technologies for improving the livelihoods of farmers and agro-based stakeholders.

Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, on his part, said research outcomes on one hand, are not readily available to end users, and they were considered too expensive to deploy.

The Minister disclosed that that various technologies and extensions are on display for adoption. Dr Akoto noted that Ghana is on a mission of leveraging agriculture across all sectors.

In line with the government’s agenda to revolutionalise the sector, e-agriculture is being championed to ensure the efficient delivery of services to farmers and actors along the agriculture value chain to enhance productivity and economic stability.

Some areas where technologies have been deployed are soil mapping, extension services, the development of a database for the biometric registration of farmers and disease control among others.

Dr Akoto expressed optimism that these technologies would contribute to job creation and food security as well as poverty reduction.