Innovate research systems to transform agriculture - Prof Ellis

Professor William Otto Ellis, Vice Chancellor (VC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has challenged scientists to innovate their research systems to radically transform the nation’s agriculture.

This, he said, was the way forward to ensure increased productivity and food security.

Prof Ellis was speaking at the opening of the 15th annual general meeting and scientific conference of the Ghana Institute of Horticulturists (GhIH) at the Crops Research Institute of Ghana (CRI) at Fumesua near Kumasi.

The two-day meeting is being jointly held with the GhanaVeg under the theme: “Promoting food security in a sustainable environment in Ghana”.

The VC noted the abundance of scientific knowledge and information on agriculture, and said what was needed was for the research systems to focus on harnessing these to bring about change in the way of doing things.

Framers must be supported and encouraged to appreciate agriculture as a wealth creation venture and to apply new technologies to raise production levels, he added.

Prof Ellis again called for the establishment of the right policy framework to guide agricultural development, build the capacity of farmers and to grow agribusiness.

Additionally, it was important to design strategies to entice banks to finance agricultural production.

Prof Ellis also suggested the creation of what he described as “service agricultural plots” to make land and other inputs easily available to attract more young people into farming.

The Reverend Dr. Hans Adu Dapaah, former Director of CRI, giving an overview of food security in Ghana, identified poverty, lack of access to credit, inadequate irrigation facilities, high post-harvest loses, poor soil fertility and water management, low adoption of improved varieties and technologies combined with unfair land policies and climate change, as the main barriers that should be tackled.

He recommended the full implementation of the national climate change policy through awareness creation, promotion of the under-utilized crops, gender mainstreaming in agriculture and establishment of more functional agricultural information centres.

Mr Joep Van Broek, Project Manager of GhanaVeg, said food security was not about the availability of much calories and starch but nutritious food that contained all the needed micro-nutrients, especially for children.

It was on the account of this that GhanaVeg was supporting food security initiatives through the provision of knowledge, capacity building, private sector-led innovation, information sharing and networking to promote increased vegetable use among Ghanaian families.

Mr. Broek announced plans to take to “cook-shows” on television to educate the public on importance of vegetables – their nutritional values and how to cook them.

Dr. Francis Appiah, Vice President of GhIH, reiterated the need for the adoption of improved technologies in agriculture to increase the “per-acreage” yield of food crops.

He said there could be no doubt about Ghana’s capacity to feed its people at all times, given the necessary support to its farmers.