By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Crops Research Institute at Fumesua in the Ashanti region has entered into a formal partnership with commercial farmers to scale up highly productive and commercially viable crop technologies developed by the Research Institute.
The partnership, under the initiative christened ‘Innovation, Research, Extension and Advisory Consortium Hub-IREACH’, is a strategic move by the Crops Research Institute to bridge the gap between technology development and utilisation towards revolutionising Ghana’s agricultural production to ensure food security, job creation, youth development, and improved livelihoods.
At the official signing ceremony at Fumesua in the Ejisu Municipality, the Director General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Relations, Prof. Paul Bosu, assured the government of the commitment of the Council to support it to achieve the desired agricultural production level of the country.
Prof. Bosu noted, “CRI stands ready to partner the government and the development partners to revolutionise the agricultural landscape to enhance food security, jobs creation, youth development and improved livelihoods. We have the required technologies for this great transformation and are committed to work with government and development partners to achieve the Ghana that we all desire.”
The Crops Research Institute, CRI, is one of the 13 research subsidiary institutions of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research that has over the years developed and released tens of improved crop varieties and technologies for commercial production by farmers in Ghana.
These technologies range from drought and pest resistance, early maturity, better yields, and climate smart involving cereals, root and tubers, plantain, banana and citrus. Despite the various efforts in linkages with farmers during the technology-development processes and contribution of their research to food production in the country over the years, the perception of a poor uptake of the new and improved crop varieties still lingers on the minds of many people.
It is to help further encourage uptake and commercial production of its research outcomes, including various postharvest processes, that the CRI has entered into partnership with some commercial farmers through an initiative known as the ‘Innovation, Research, Extension, Advisory and Consortium Hub-IREACH’.
With the support of CORAF, Kansa State University, USAID and the West Africa Food Resilience System Programme, ‘IREACH’ is constituted by eight partners made up of the Crops Research Institute, and seven large-scale commercial farmers from the Ashanti, Bono and Bono East regions to seek funding and technical support for the various agric initiatives by the partners.
The establishment of the Consortium has been formalised with the signing of a partnership agreement at Fumesua with all the partners present.
The Director General of the CSIR, Professor Paul Bosu, signed on behalf of the Crips Research Institute, the lead agency, while the owners of the seven partner farms personally signed or thumbprinted the agreement after consenting to the terms publicly.
The Director CORAF/IREACH Technical Advisor from Cameroon, Dr. Caroline Makanto Sogbui, said with the enviable track record of CRI in developing and releasing new crop technologies, realisation of the objectives of the Consortium is not in doubt.
“When you’re working with institutions like Crops Research Institute on development projects, you’re always happy. If all the partners can be like Crops Research Institute, you can sleep knowing that, at the end of the day, you’ll not have any problems because sometimes when you work with some institutions, you don’t know what the funds are being used for,” she explained.
One of the Consortium member farmers, Yusif Bumbas, expressed optimism about the success of the project.
One Response
How do I access your Roots and Tubers Dept. Am in need of your high yielding cassava planting materials