News

Make available farming technologies to farmers

 The Director- General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dr Paul Bosu, has appealed to research scientists to ensure farming technologies developed are not kept on the shelves but de­ployed to the beneficiary farmers.

“Our goal is that the investments that the country has put into re­search and development are indeed made available to ensure that the nation develops and benefits fully from the tax payers’ money,” he stated.

According to Prof. Bosu, “We are aiming at supporting the gov­ernment’s Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) to ensuring that Ghana achieves the Sustainable Develop­ment Goal Two of zero hunger… but more importantly that no Ghanaian wakes up in the morning and will not get any food to eat… no one should sleep on an empty stomach, that is the ultimate goal.”

He was speaking during the Open Day of the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Re­search and Development (CORAF) Technology Park at the Crop Re­search Institute of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CRI-CSIR) at Fumesua in the Ashanti Region on Wednesday.

It brought together research scientists from Ghana and other African Countries to showcase new technologies to boost crop adop­tion, food and nutrition security in the country.

Prof. Bosu emphasised the im­portance of deploying agricultural technologies to farmers, which “we have been doing despite lack of funding in line with our mandate to the people of Ghana”.

He told participants that tech­nologies developed were not for mere showing, but that should move from the display shelves to farmers’ fields to the benefit of all.

The Minister of Food and Agri­culture (MoFA), Dr Bryan Ache­ampong, in a speech read on his behalf, spoke about a new Input Credit System that would ensure farmers register their farms for the government to provide critical sup­port to them in agricultural inputs.

He explained that the govern­ment would bear the production cost of farmers, and also would help farmers get fertilisers at more affordable prices.

The minister urged all farmers to embrace the development to register their farms towards food security in the country.

“The roll out of the programme means one will no longer need to mobilise upfront financing for land development and preparation as well as seeds and fertilisers, govern­ment will take care of all that,” he emphasised.

Farmers, he indicated, would pay back in kind, as the government would then deduct all the cost ex­pended from the produce and give the remaining to the owners.

According to the minister, the seeds would be provided by the country’s agricultural research sci­entists who would be working with the farmers.

The Director of the Crop Re­search Institute of the CSIR, Prof. Moses Mochiah, said technology development was aimed at ensuring employment to young people and that about 100 young persons had recently been trained to develop new technologies to boost agricul­ture.

The Chief of Okyerekrom, Kwaku Ababio, chaired the func­tion.

 FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE,­FUMESUA

Show More
Back to top button