Researchers liaise with government on agric and industrialization initiatives

The Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is liaising with the government to identify some agricultural commodities that can be adopted under the One-District-One-Factory policy initiative.

The policy implementation creates an environment for each local government area to harness its endowed resources to establish industries that provide jobs and create wealth.

Director of the CRI-CSIR, Dr. Stella Ennin, has pointed to the potentials in cassava as an immediate crop that can exploited under the initiative.

“One of the crops that is tops is cassava starch production, and we have varieties that have high starch content of about 34 percent on weight basis and also resistant to the major diseases of cassava which we are working with the government to make available for the one-district-one-factory policy,” she said.

Research activities from public institutions have resulted in the release of high yielding cassava varieties to raise production levels.

Ghana produces about 16million metric tonnes of cassava and incomes from production and post-harvest processing of the commodity represent about 20 percent of the country’s GDP.

Industrialization of cassava will therefore increase opportunities along the value chain. Both domestic and export markets will tap into value-added products such as ethanol from cassava, starch for the pharmaceutical industry, high quality cassava flour and starch for breweries, and composite flour for the bakery and confessionary industries.

Dr. Ennin says participating in the government’s One-District-One-Factory as well as the Planting for Food and Jobs programmes is to push for the commercialization and dissemination of agricultural research products.

The CRI has released new varieties of rice and sweet potato to support the planting for food and jobs programme.

The researchers also supply seed growers with varieties of maize, soyabean and pepper to be able to produce and supply farmers with certified seeds.

Dr. Ennin believes crops like sweet potato and caning bean have the potential to increase incomes of farmers whilst addressing the nutritional and hidden hunger issues in Ghana.

Sweet potato farmers, for instance, can get a good yield of about 30tonnes per hectare within four months and farmers can plant twice a year. Other benefits include use of the vine for animal feed, planting material and soil improvement.

“We believe that production will double by adhering to the production practices that go with them,” she said.

The Crops Research Institute is among research facilities under the CSIR, the foremost national science and technology institution in Ghana. The CRI has a broad research mandate covering all food and industrial crops.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Sweetpotato: the next food security crop

The production of sweetpotato in Ghana is less than 20 percent of targeted production levels, mainly hindered by perception that the crop is food for poor people.

But the role of sweetpotato is becoming more important and substantial in fostering household food and nutrition diversification.

The orange-fleshed sweetpotato varieties, for instance, can contribute to combating Vitamin A Deficiency and can also serve as wheat flour substitute in processed products.

Interest groups in food and agriculture want sweetpotato to be seen as the next crop the country should be projecting, due the potentials in food security and industrial value addition, as well as its growing export demand.

“If you link up the future of potato and starch in general to the car industry, you realize that even an over production can be mopped up by the vehicle industry, because they can use most of that material to build the dashboards that you so comfortably want to sit in,” observed Joseph Faalong, a director at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

He however says there is the need to raise the productivity of potato higher, by creating interest in the business potentials of sweet potato production, especially among the youth.

“To do potato on a large scale, we need to devise mechanisms for lifting the crop. If we as researchers can look more into mechanical harvesters, machinery that can lift the crop on a large scale, then we’ll be doing a lot of justice to productivity,” he added.

The International Sweetpotato Centre (CIP), in collaboration with the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), is running a training of trainers’ course on “Everything You Need to Know About Sweet Potato”.

Project Coordinator, Dr. Ibok Oduro of the KNUST, noted there are business opportunities along the sweetpotato value chain; from planting to marketing and processing of the crop.

“Sweet potato gives a variety of avenues for people to create business and that is why we think the training of trainers will empower them to be able to do such things,” she said, adding breeders are developing seed varieties that are resistant to diseases and also looking at machines for peeling sweet potatoes for industrial attraction.

The Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the CSIR has developed and released 12 high yielding sweetpotato varieties, which yield 2-3 times higher than the traditional varieties.

Dr. Oduro is encouraging Ghanaians to particularly look at potato leaf production as a viable agricultural venture.

“With sweet potato, within four months to five months you harvest; so it means three times in a year, you have something to sell… the leaf is very rich in anti-oxidants,” she said.

CIP has been working to promote sweet potato in Ghana, through partnerships with local institutions on post-harvest handling, techniques in breeding systems

“Sweet potato was an orphaned crop but now with the training, we are opening the mind of people on how we can use and harness sweetpotato like other crops,” said Putri Ernawati Abidin, Project Manager at the International Potato Centre (CIP).

In Ghana, CIP has set a goal of reaching nearly 500,000 households with resilient nutritious sweetpotato by 2020.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh

Yam farmers exposed to smart technologies to be climate resilient

Yam farmers in parts of Ghana have been exposed to smart technologies needed to build a resilient cropping system in order to increase yields to at least 30% over current yields.

With climate change thwarting the efforts of yam farmers, researchers have emphasized that having a technology packaged with fertilization, seed treatment, minimum staking and ridging does not only help farmers to be competitive in meeting  yam export standards but further reduces their production cost.

Ghana’s Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-CRI), in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria, has trained and disseminated good agronomic practices to more than 250 yam farmers from Ejura, Atebubu and Kintampo between 2014 and 2016.

This is under the 5-year Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Speaking to farmers at a field day to harvest the crop in Atebubu, an agronomist from the CSIR-CRI, Felix Frimpong, stated that the project has helped to increase yam production and raised income levels of yam farmers through participatory demonstrations, on-farm trials and farmer’s field days. 

“The project has helped doubled or in some cases tripped the yield of farmers compared to their conventional practice. It is estimated that the improved agronomic package is able raise yields to about 55% over the current achievable yields in-spite of climate change,” he said. 

The improved technology builds up farmers resilience because the ridging helps in moisture conservation, the use of the trellis staking reduces farmers contribution to deforestation as a result of the reduction in the number stakes used by at least half.

“It is also evident that the technology promotes intensification on the given area because of the high population density and arrangements it accommodates. Sprouting which is also key for yam production is assured because seeds are pre-treated thereby reducing pest incidence and rot,” explained Mr. Frimpong.

When adopted, the technology ensures better living standards compared to traditional farming of mounding and planting.

 

Some beneficiary farmers are excited at the opportunity to increase yield under with the improved technology.

The researchers have advised policy makers to help promote such innovations and make available mechanized ridges for commercial production.

The YIIFSWA project ended in December 2016 with an expected additional grant for a second phase upscale.

By Kofi Adu Domfeh   

Consolidating agricultural productivity through efficient innovation platforms

Ghana has developed over 30 agricultural technologies since the West African Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) was initiated in 2007.

WAAPP’s development objective is to generate and disseminate improved technologies in the country’s top priority commodities in root and tuber crops, specifically, cassava, yam, sweet potato and cocoyam.

WAAPP Ghana has the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as its implementing agency.

Under the implementation of the first phase of the Programme, researchers at the CSIR-Crops Research Institute in Kumasi – the designated National Centre of Specialization – have developed diverse crop varieties and agricultural technologies.

However, the rate of transfer and adaptation of these technologies remains low along the agricultural value chain, observed Augustine Danquah of WAAPP’s Coordination Unit at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

This is because the project did not develop a comprehensive action plan to scale up technologies and best practices during the implementation of the first phase.

Director of CSIR-CRI, Dr. Stella Ennin, has acknowledged there have been gaps in previous participatory approaches to research.

She says the previous approach placed emphasis on farmers and extension whilst others in the value chain were placed in the background.

Adopting the innovation platform and Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IR4D) approaches, according to Dr. Ennin, is critical in engaging all key players long the agricultural value chain, including processes, traders and marketers.

“Usually we are able to move forward when there are projects in agriculture; what happens in the absence of projects?” she quizzed. “We should be able to incorporate this concept of innovation platforms and IR4D into our agricultural and extension system, so that whether there is a project or not, we’ll be able to move our agriculture forward”.

Innovative platforms give room for interest groups to discuss issues around a particular commodity or cropping system, especially with the view to adopting improved technologies.

Under the second phase of WAAPP, the platforms are being promoted to consolidate the gains by disseminating the develop technologies for widespread adoption.

WAAPP is collaborating with the International Centre for development oriented Research in Agriculture (ICRA) to build capacity of innovative platform facilitators in 15 districts in the country on soft skills to deepen the approach at the local level.

ICRA’s Benjamin Horlali Kofi Atidjah says technical skills must be complemented with soft skills to accelerate the adoption of agricultural technologies.

The second phase of WAAPP will be implemented from 2012-2017 with an amount of $60million to scale-up the generation, dissemination and adoption of improved technologies in the participating countries’ priority agricultural commodity areas.

“What we need to do right now is to move the innovation platforms beyond the community level; we should be able to establish innovation platform at the regional level and the national level for certain commodities… to improve on our food security and also on our exports,” said Dr. Stella Ennin.

The two-phase 10-year programme is funded by the World Bank and involves three countries – Ghana, Mali and Senegal.

Agronomic technologies for sustainable yam production in the face of climate change

Farmers at Nyomoase in the Atebubu-Amantin Municipality of the Brong Ahafo Region are happy to embrace an improved technology in yam production.

The farm is the classroom where the farmers and research scientists get themselves busy with the soil to learn how to better produce yam for higher income and reduction in drudgery.

At the end of eight months in field activities – planting and assessment of vegetative stage, an examination is undertaken by way of harvest and evaluation of the differences in crop yields between an introduced improved technology and the farmers’ practice.

Sumaila Rufai, a 32 year-old father of four, is enthused at the new knowledge of generating multiple planting materials of seed yam.

“We have been very wasteful with the use of seed yams,” he observed. “For instance, instead of planting a seed on one mound, now I know I can do that on 4-5 mounds”.

This and other best agronomic practices are off-shoots of the technology introduced to the farmers.

The participatory approach is the best to encourage farmers to adopt new agricultural technologies, according to research scientists from the Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The introduction of the “Improved Agronomic Technologies for Sustainable Yam Production” involves the use of mechanized ridges and minimum staking per unit area, dubbed “trellis”, as well as fertilizer application on continuously cropped fields.

“…and you can see the yield as we weigh is about 35-50percent increase on the ridges as compared to the farmers’ practice and you can see the sprout rate was better on the ridges as compared to the mounds,” noted Eric Owusu Danquah, a Yam Agronomist leading the project.

The Project is under the West Africa Agriculture Productivity Programme (WAAPP), funded by the World Bank. Trials are taking place on selected farmers’ fields within Ejuraand Atebubu-Amantin yam producing agro-ecological zones of Ghana. .

The five-year project ends in 2017 and already the technology developers are satisfied with the rate of adoption.

Hannah Adade is a 65-year old mother of seven. She has been supporting her husband in yam production for over 40 years, long enough to appreciate the benefits of the improved production technology.

“We have more yield now growing yam on ridges than with mounds,” she said. “I encourage other farmers to come on board to also benefit”.

The use of the mechanized ridges reduces drudgery, which encourages women like Madam Hannah to venture into yam production for improved livelihoods.

Yam is a major food crop and Ghana is a lead exporter of the commodity.

Generally, yam produced with mounds give larger tubers but it is difficult to meet the export market requirements.  Ridges however give sizable weight for export and also help in preservation.

The researchers are collaborating with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to fabricate and make available Mechanized Ridgers at vantage points to ease farmers’ access to go into production.

At Nyomoase, the farmers and researchers took the risk of planting the yam in drought, as the rains failed to pour in June and July, 2015.

“Even planting in drought you can see that the yields are still better,” said Mr. Owusu Danquah after harvesting the yam in December, touting the climate-reliance of the technology.

Farmers, traditionally, are inclined to clear new fields for yam production, in which process they contribute to deforestation and depletion of carbon sinks that eventually leads to climate change.

“We are encouraging farmers to plant on continuously cropped fields and that means they’ll not open up new areas, so at least we have our carbon sinks intact; and this is a technology which uses ropes and few stakes, so the farmers do not have to fell trees for staking. So this is climate resilient,” Mr. Owusu Danquah said.

Ghanaian farmers, like many others in Sub-sahara Africa, rely heavily on the rains to produce food.

The poor downpour in 2015 severely affected food production in Ghana, a situation that threatens food security in 2016.

Felix Frimpong, a research scientist focused on climate resilient crop production, says the adoption of climate smart agricultural practices is the way to go for Ghanaian farmers.

“We need to support the farmers with fertilizer subsidies, resilient crop varieties and farming technologies, increased diversification of agriculture systems, promotion of simple irrigation facilities, we need to also train them and advocate that the old ways of farming need to change to ensure increased productivity and climate resilient,” he stated.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh

CSIR-CRI to run post-graduate programmes in science education

The Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been accredited to run post-graduate programmes in science education.

The Institute has over the years produced crop varieties and generated technologies to support Ghana’s food production and economic development.

Through its research and agricultural extension, the CSIR-CRI has also passed on knowledge and skills to farmers and educational institutions.

“We believe that by coming up with a graduate school, we’ll be able to target the next generation and build capacity in these new areas of science, so that we can ensure that science knowledge is passed on for posterity,” said Dr. Stella Ennin, Director of the CSIR-CRI.

She says the graduate school will take off with a Plant Breeding and Biotechnology programme to empower young scientists and researchers with theoretical and practical training.

“We have combined modern breeding technologies with conventional breeding and they are going to have this package together,” she noted.

The Crops Research Institute is the largest of the 13 institutes under the CSIR.

Students from tertiary institutions already use the CSIR-CRI laboratories and library for their research and also access improved crop varieties for academic work.

Over 100 students from the universities and polytechnics undertake industrial attachments at the CRI every year, whilst scientists from the Institute are also engaged as part-time lecturers in universities and supervise projects of students.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh

Researchers target senior high students with biotech education

Ghanaian researchers are focused on increasing knowledge on the application of biotechnology in agriculture and other economic activities.

The scientists believe the high opposition to the introduction of genetically modified (GM) products into the country could be a result of limited information on the subject.

“Biotechnology is an emerging area of science; it’s progressing faster than computer science and even those of us in this part of the world, it’s difficult to even catch up with the pace and that is what has brought about all the myth fear about the GM technology,” said Dr. Marian Quain, Head of Biotechnology Research Programme at the Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

She is coordinating a project to introduce biotechnology education in high schools across sub-Saharan Africa.

Some Senior High Schools in Kumasi were engaged in a debate on biotechnology as part of the project – it was won by T.I. Ahmadiyya Senior High School, Kumasi.

“The information on biotech even in the syllabus is scanty, so we don’t have much facility in the laboratory even to help teach it,” stated Henry Edem Denteh, a teacher at T.I. Amass.

He describes the programmes as education as his school also receives training kits to facilitate teaching and learning of the subject.

Dr. Quain observed Ghana is yet to optimize use of biotechnologies in agricultural production and is hopeful the project will enhance critical thinking among students in the areas of biotech and GMOs.

“We need to get them educated so that they can make informed decisions and communicate effectively about the technology,” she stated.

The project is supported by Inqaba Biotechnical Industries Limited, a company that assists researchers in testing for GMOs to detect and isolate wrong materials. It is also creating a network in sub-Saharan African to promote biotechnology.

Ghana Area Director of Inqaba Biotec, Christian Adabor Badu, acknowledged there are “bad” GM products in the system but stated that the country should not neglect the importance of having “good” GMOs in place.

He is worried a high court injunction halting production and commercialization of GM products will impede efforts at applying science and technology to increase Ghana’s food security.

Campaigners against GMOs, Food Sovereignty Ghana, is in court contesting the process of testing and production of crops like rice and cowpea using GM technology without an established Biosafety Authority to legally regulate such activities.

According to the group, Ghana’s food security is endangered if it has to depend on multinational companies to produce seeds for local farmers and also contends that GM products will hurt the ability of farmers to use natural seeds for production.

The Court has ordered government to stop GM activities until the case brought by Food Sovereignty Ghana is determined.

But Mr. Adabor Badu says this development will not be in the interest of research for higher productivity.

“If we are able to embrace GMOs in the right way, the country will be able to go far in terms of increasing yield and crop and animal production,” he stated.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh 

Community Action for Yam Seed Project to increase food security in Ghana and Nigeria

Smallholder farmers in Ghana and Nigeria are being supported to improve on the quality of saved seed yam for higher productivity.

The Community Action for Yam Seed (CAY-SEED) Project is aimed at increasing food security and wealth creation by addressing some of the major limitations to yam production.

The three-year project is targeted at improving the quality and productivity of 3,000 smallholder farmers through innovative agricultural interventions in eight major yam growing communities in Ghana and Nigeria.

It is being implemented by the Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and partners, with a $3.5million funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – the CSIR-CRI is making $0.5million additional in-kind contribution.

Seeds are key component in the drive for food security and sustainability, especially in these times of climate change and its impact in agricultural production. Availability of yam seed constitutes as much as 50% of total cost of yam production.

“Coupled with this is the poor quality of available seed yam; damage from nematodes, viruses, tuber rots and bacterial infections are major contributions to the poor seed quality and yield reductions in yam,” observed Dr. Stella Ennin, Project Leader and Director of the CSIR-CRI. “This partnership intervention is therefore vital to raise the level of seed yam production in Nigeria, which is the lead producer of yam in the world, and Ghana, which is the leading exporter of yam in the world”.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) considers the CAY-SEED grant as a “critical investment”.

“We identified seed systems as one of the primary constraints across cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas and yam; all the crops that we invest in,” noted Claire Kpaka, an Associate Program Officer at the Foundation. “For us, we see CAY-SEED as an important opportunity to demonstrate to farmers the best practices in maintaining clean seed at their own farm level.”

Whilst commending development partners for the support for agricultural development, Dr. Ennin pleaded with the Ghanaian and African governments “to provide the needed support to agricultural research and development to realize African government’s vision as enshrined in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), of making agriculture the vehicle for economic transformation on the continent”.

Ashanti Regional Minister, Samuel Sarpong, addressing the project launch, acknowledged it is only through research that problems of low crop yield would be addressed.

According to him, the government of Ghana with the support of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank is making significant strides in addressing the challenges faced by research into the crop.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh

Minister engages scientists on commercialization of research products

The Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation has intensified engagements with institutes under Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to push the agenda of commercializing research products.

Sector Minister, Dr. Oteng Adjei, says the 13 research institutes have the potential to be financially independent whilst supporting economic growth by putting commercial value to the output of research activities.

“We looking forward to them adding value to the raw material which will allow us to have food security and also be able to get money expand and also be able to make the scientists feel very comfortable”, he told Luv Biz Report during a working visit CSIR-Crops Research Institute in Kumasi.

The CRI has over the years developed new technologies and come out with improved crop varieties with high economic benefits for the manufacturing and agricultural sectors.

Director of the Institute, Dr. Hans Adu-Dapaah, has emphasized the importance of activating linkages between researchers, agriculturists and industrialists for the country to benefit from research products.

Inadequate funding for research however remains a challenge to the CRI, he said.

Dr. Adjei acknowledged the constraint but says “the President has given us a line as to how legally we can give them a constant flow of income – at least it should be about one percent of GDP”.

He says the Ministry is also committed to supporting the Institute and others under the CSIR to efficiently communicate and commercialize research products to help create jobs and increase the country’s food export earnings.

An agricultural economist with the CRI, Jonas Osei-Adu believes a team with commercial skills would need to be put in place to advance the cause.

“We already have the technology; let’s find a very simple setting like a technology center, a one-stop shop whereby people can come in and access our technology. That will be the starting poring for our commercialization drive”, he observed.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh

Cassava value addition creates more income for farmers

Ghana’s promotion of High Quality Cassava Flour has in the past four years helped open up markets for cassava farmers to improve incomes and reduce poverty levels.
   

According to Dr. Abdulai Baaba Salifu, Director-General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), over 45,000 tons of surplus cassava from farmers’ fields had been moved into the new markets within the cassava value chain, as at March 2012.

The CSIR-Food Research Institute (FRI) in collaboration with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) developed agro-processed foods under the “Cassava: Added Value for Africa” Project to serve as wheat flour substitute for the production of bread, pastries and in plywood production amongst others.

Dr. Salifu says this has created “an overall income of over GH¢1.5 million for close to 15,000 cassava farmers, which translates to an extra income of about GH¢100 per farmer”.

He was speaking on “Enhancing Food Security and Regional Integration through Research and Development” at a Regional Workshop on Root and Tuber Crops, organized under the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) in Kumasi.

The World Bank in May 2012 approved a US$120 million financing for the Phase II of the WAAPP to improve food production by spreading new agricultural technologies in Ghana and Senegal.

The program will finance technology exchange programs, align national priorities with regional ones to increase regional cooperation in food technology generation, and support a greater push for technology adoption and dissemination.

In Ghana, the CSIR’s Crop Research Institute executes the research component whilst the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) disseminates the research findings.

WAAPP Phase I helped boost research and extension activities, bringing together research and educational institutions, industrialists, extension workers, farmers and consumers to a common national objective in Ghana and in the sub-region.

 

Crop Scientist, Prof. S.K.A. Danso expects the second phase of the WAAPP to stress on getting the improved technologies to majority of farmers, “visit them and make sure they are adopting the technology and once you extend to some farmers who accept it, other would learn from them”.

“Our populations are increasing but the land area of the country remains the same with portions deteriorating due to human activities.  With the recent phenomenon of climate change and its adverse effects – flooding, drought, heat and related outbreak of pests and diseases – it takes demand-driven research to develop technologies and products to meet the demands of our farmers, processors and consumers. This is where CSIR comes in”, noted Dr. Salifu.

 

Minister of Food and Agriculture, Kwesi Ahwoi, believes the effective coordination of research efforts within the national and international agricultural research system is very important to ensure that scarce resources are applied to priority research.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh