By Anthony Apubeo, GNA
Bolgatanga, Oct. 28, GNA – Government had been urged to invest strategically in agriculture extension research to boost the sector, as research was critical in the agriculture value chain.
Dr Roger Adamu Lure Kanton, the Principal Research Scientist, Savannah Agriculture Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-SARI) said channeling more resources into the sector would enable relevant stakeholders to undertake intensive research.
He called for activities of the Research Extension Linkage Committee (RELC) to be mainstreamed into the funding sources of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and the CSIR to make it sustainable and relevant in the agriculture sector.
Dr Kanton made the call at the Annual Agriculture Extension Policy Review Forum, held in Bolgatanga, organised by MOFA, in collaboration with CSIR with funding support from the Modernizing Extension and Advisory Services (MEAS).
The forum was to create a platform for policy dialogue and conduct a performance review assessment with regards to stakeholder implementation of the Agriculture Extension Policy to improve extension delivery in Ghana.
The idea is to develop prioritized recommendations for policy implementation and framework improvements to influence decision making process to enhance the livelihoods of poor rural farmers, Dr Kanton said.
“Currently RELC has no sustainable source of funding and the donors only come in to support when there is a project to be undertaken, however there are issues regarding soil fertility, diseases, varieties that RELC continuously needed to research into irrespective of whether there is a project or not”.
He said RELC was a panacea to ensuring food security, nutrition and general livelihoods of farmers and, therefore, all efforts must be made by the Central Government through the Regional Coordinating Council or the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to sustain the project after the MEAS sponsorship ends.
Dr Samuel Mahama, the Monitory and Evaluation Specialist of CSIR, indicated that MEAS had, over the years, helped to increase yields of farmers through improved technologies, crop varieties and good agricultural practices.
He said the project was presently interested in training and equipping farmers with the knowledge and skills to be able to produce quality products, properly preserve them and be able to get access to good markets, both locally and internationally.
Mr Emmanuel Ankrah Odame, the Deputy Director of the Department of Extension Services, said government introduced the Planting for Food and Jobs, Planting for Export, and Rearing for Food and Jobs, among other flagship programmes to boost agriculture production.
There was, therefore, the need to assist the farmers to address challenges such as soil fertility, fall army worm, and afflatoxin to achieve food and nutritional security.
GNA
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