The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), has established a National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization and Management.
The goal is to enhance training and research in agricultural mechanization and manufacturing in the country, to tap its potential of up scaling productivity in the agricultural sector significantly.
It is also in line with the government’s vision of ‘Ghana beyond Aid’, and for that critical sector, it is to support the academia to come out with cutting-edge technological innovations in ensuring food sufficiency and security for the citizenry.
Professor Mark Adom-Asamoah, Provost of the College of Engineering, KNUST, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi, said the project was a collaborative work between the University and Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA).
The Ministry in pursuit of resourcing the Centre to achieve its objectives has, therefore, presented to the University 13 different equipment.
They include tractors, ploughs, harrows, boom sprayers and combined harvesters, worth over GHC800,000.00
Prof. Adom-Asamoah hinted that the College had already planted eight acres of maize at Anwomaso near Kumasi, and entreated stakeholders to support the University in finding a lasting antidote to challenges confronting the agricultural sector.
He explained that Ghana’s economy was agro-based, due to this, the sector needed lot of investment to fully harness the nation’s potentials of producing enough for her own people.
