A five-year Water Energy Food Program (WEFP) program has been started to alleviate the nation's lack of rice seeds.
The project aims to increase Ghana's rice self-sufficiency through a partnership between the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Korea Partnership for Innovation in Agriculture (KOPIA).
The initiative calls for the mechanization and irrigation assistance of 100 hectares of farmland to generate 1200 metric tons of high-quality rice seeds annually that would be given away free to 12,000 farmers around the nation.
A rice seed storehouse had been built in advance of the project's flawless debut, according to Lim Jung-Taek, the Republic of Korea's ambassador to Ghana, who spoke at the project's opening yesterday.
"We anticipate that the new warehouse, which has a storage capacity of 78,000 bags of rice seeds, will significantly improve things by preserving high-quality rice seeds for farmers," he added.
The Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI) representatives attended the ceremony together with supporters of rice farming from Kenya, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Cameroun, and Uganda.
Varieties
Six high-yield rice varieties have been created for the project, according to Mr. Jung-Taek, and they will be combined with efficient agricultural mechanization to provide the desired outcomes.
As you are all aware, high-yield rice varieties and agricultural mechanization are essential elements in expanding rice production and attaining greater self-sufficiency in Ghana. The Ambassador said, "We have created six high-yield rice varieties for the project.
Bryan Acheampong, the Minister of Food and Agriculture from Ghana, who was a special guest at the occasion, expressed his enthusiasm for the initiative and reaffirmed Ghana's commitment to it.
Given the significance of the seed business, Greater Accra Regional Minister Henry Quartey said that seed certification should be given top priority internationally to guarantee that farmers have access to only high-quality, genetically pure seeds that are free of diseases and adapted to the local environment.
He also emphasized that the seed sector had a significant role in food security, the elimination of poverty, and economic growth, saying that the ongoing delivery of quality seed was necessary to guarantee that farmers had access to it during all seasons.
Challenges Due to the absence of quality seed certification and distribution in Africa, Mr. Quartey expressed worry about the difficulties the rice value chain faced.
This might be related to a lack of investment in R&D because so many African nations lack the financial means to fund agricultural research, forcing them to rely on outside sources for new seed kinds, the author said.
In order to create new seed varieties that can adapt to local circumstances, the minister urged government and private sector funding for local research institutions.
blogpay
Total Comments: 0