Adapt new varieties to improve crop yields …CSIR to farmers

Participants at the programme

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Institute (CSIR-Ghana) has implored farmers in the north to adopt “technologically-driven” crop varieties to improve upon their crop yields.

The call was made at a day’s workshop at Zebilla in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region.

The workshop brought together farmers and researchers in agriculture to discuss best practices in improving on crop cultivation, in the wake of the climate change phenomenon, which had greatly affected farmers in the region and the country as a whole.

Equally, the workshop was held to assess and evaluate the impact of some accessions (varieties) introduced to selected group of farmers from the Bawku West District two years ago.

Speaking to Ghanaian Times on the sidelines of the workshop, a Division Head for the Plant Genetic Diversity of CSIR-Ghana, Dr Matilda Bissah, said some two farmers’ groups in the district were trained and given access to seeds under a project dubbed “Germplasm” which according to her, was a component of the Seeds for Resilience (SfR) project being implemented jointly by the Ghana Genebank and the Global Crop Diversity Trust, with funding support from the Federal Government of Germany (BMZ), through the German Development Bank.

According to her, the project was rolled out to ensure effective collaborations to enhance the conservation and use of the genetic Bambara Groundnut (BGN) and Indigenous Leafy Vegetables in the region.

“Ultimately, this partnership approach is expected to enhance the availability of the seeds of these crops for direct use by farmers and the development of climate-resilient crop varieties for improved livihoods and food and nutrition security at the household and community levels,” Dr Bissah disclosed.

Dr Patrick Attamah, a plant breeder of the CSIR-Ghana, said five out of 20 accessions had actually been chosen by farmers for further production in communities under Zebilla, “so our objective of reintroducing the genebank to farmers has been achieved and we hope they will continue to produce the accessions they selected, and increase bambara production in the Upper East Region”.

Charles Abagre, a farmer from Naraansag, one of the beneficiary communities, touted the CSIR-SARI for the implementation of the project, stating he had bumper harvest, since he adopted the varieties two years ago.

FROM FRANCIS DABRE, ZEBILA