By: Napoleon Ato Kittoe
The United States Department of Agriculture is supporting education on improved agricultural methods in Ghana by engaging research scientists, farmers and media in an interactive session at Tamale in northern Ghana.
Dubbed US-Ghana Innovation For Food And Economy, it flows from the belief in Ghana’s potential and capacity to generate internal systems or apply existing ones to increase food productivity.
The United States identifies agriculture where Ghana and Africa are naturally endowed as the foundational block and the basic tool for fighting poverty.
The Tamale forum has the Economic Associate of US Embassy, Easton Reid, the Director General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR, Prof. Paul Bosu, the Chief Executive of the National Biosafety Authority, Mr. Eric Okoree and the Chief Director of the Environment Ministry, Mrs. Cynthia Asare-Bediako as some of the leading speakers on the theme.
The technical presentations were made by Dr Michael Asante of CSIR-Crop Research Institute and Dr Jerry Nboyine of the CSIR-Savannah Agricultural Research Institute.
They spoke on rice and cowpea (beans) breeding using improved methods of propagation. As Ghana builds a resilient system in the face of climate change and other stressful conditions, agriculturalists are increasingly relying on new varieties of staple crops to maintain yield levels or increase productivity.
Population increase is another threat to the food sufficiency aspiration where increased numbers of global population continue to shrink the size of farmlands.
By 2050 global population is estimated to hit 9.9 billion, Africa’s share being 2.5 billion as the continent experiences high birthrates.
The onslaught of challenges require that farming is guided to make the most out of research and smaller farm holdings to be able to feed populations and for economic gain.
UN Sustainable Development Goal Two, that aims at stamping out hunger by 2030, all other goals also on same benchmark, are racing against time to meet targets. Unfolding natural conditions continue to pose challenge to these quests.
Water conservation tops Morocco’s national agenda whilst international agencies have done a troubleshoot on the implications of drought in Somalia.
In Ghana, the acoustics are directed at import substitution for most of the country’s staples or continue to experience a worsening foreign exchange situation.
Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and global pandemics have nudged countries to the awareness and the need to prioritize food production and nutritional values as means of obviating some of the painful realities on the planet.
