Ghana’s Atomic Energy Commission adapts technologies to boost Agriculture production

GHANA – The Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) has adapted an array of new technologies to help improve the agricultural systems in the country and enable farmers accelerate their farming activities.

The commission says that it has developed and adopted technologies that will help in modernising the agriculture sector with a view of producing good and quality seeds, reports Ghana News Agency.

Among the technologies include Radiation, Sterile Insects Techniques, Tissue Culture and Mutation Breeding.

Speaking during a forum organised by the commission and the ministry of science and technology, the Deputy Director of Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute, Dr Michael Osae, said that the technologies will also enable the country feed increasing populations.

The new technologies would enable farmers to produce crops at larger quantities and protect them from being destroyed. 

He said the technologies were introduced to determine the quality of the soil before applying fertilizers to it to improve the production of crops.

The introduction of the new technologies, he said, would help those in the agricultural sector to harvest more produces with ease.   

Dr Osae explained that the radiation worked on plants by damaging the enzymes that caused crops deteriorate quickly and thereby extending the life shelve of the crops.

“Excess radiation has effects on the crops and could damage it if not treated with proper care,” he noted.

He noted that about 30 to 85 per cent of fruits were damaged by fruit flies, therefore, sterile insects techniques were employed to reduce pest population on crops and fruits.

The mutation breeding variety enabled farmers to select the good crops from the bad ones, he said, adding that tissue culture was mostly used on crops such as cassava, sweet potato, pineapple, sugar cane and plantain.

He further explained that other machines such as the solar dryers were used to convert tomatoes into powder and subsequently into tomato puree.

Organic composer machine, he said, was also used to convert waste into organic fertilizers to improve the quality of the soil, adding that, Isotope machines were also used to determine the amount of nutrients and nitrogen in the soil before production.