GHANA – The Africa Development Bank (AfDB) through the Technologies for Africa Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) is set to facilitate dissemination of agricultural technologies in Ghana in a bid to enhance food security on the country.
Stakeholders and farmers in the agriculture sector will receive training who will subsequently set up innovation platforms to scale up the training programme, reports Ghana News Agency.
Additionally, the TAAT being implemented by Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA) among other partners would enhance the use of proven agricultural technologies among the stakeholders to foster the needed change through farm-level productivity and value chain development.
Speaking during a recently held workshop in Ghana, Professor Wole Fatunbi, Lead Specialist Innovation Systems and Partnerships at FARA noted that dissemination of innovative technologies remain a major challenge in ensuring free flow of technology across the sector.
He stated that often, impact on the innovations were not felt at the farmer level and did not reap its desired results and that TAAT at the end of the implementation would contribute to the continents socio-economic development.
He explained that some of the technologies the TAAT would be facilitating in its dissemination and actualisation were climate-smart technologies including; drought resistance seeds and water management technologies.
Prof Fatunbi said the project will integrate 10 commodities including; rice, maize, cassava, Fish, small-ruminant, and the fall armyworm control with pre-screened that had potentials yield increased benefits and be scaled out.
Dr Gordon Akon-Yamga, a Research Scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Science and Technology Policy Research Institute highlighted that the need of a synergistic approach in ensuring optimal returns.
The state of agricultural innovation platforms in Ghana, he said was fast evolving; growing in number and in acceptance by the national agricultural research and development system.
According to Dr Gordon there were fragmented and duplicated efforts by stakeholders of the national agricultural research and development system as well as the inefficient deployment of resources for agricultural research.
Mr Emmanuel A. Odame, from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture said the research instituted had developed new cereal and tuber facilities that needed to reach the farmers to apply and make them productive.
The efforts to boost the agriculture sector remain a key strategy in the country’s economy diversification agenda.
