By Solomon Gumah
Tamale, Oct 26, GNA – Dr Prem Bindraban, Programmes Director of the International Fertilizer Development Centre, has called on government and other stakeholders in the agricultural sector to adopt and prioritize comprehensive approach to ensure food security.
He said food security required that stakeholders take the necessary steps towards supporting farmers to increase their yields and incomes through the sustainable application of fertilizers.
He said that could only be achieved through effective collaboration by reaching out to the government, industries, researchers, and students in identifying evidence-based responsible fertilizer usage in the country.
Dr Bindraban said this at a stakeholders’ engagement with key actors of the Fertilizer Research and Responsible Implementation (FERARI) Programme held in Tamale.
The event was to help participants reflect on the experimental and survey findings under the programme, and to identify options for improvement and follow-up activities.
Professor Mohamed El-Gharous, Coordinator of the FERARI Programme, said the programme was to develop evidence-based inputs that showed need for a systematic approach to support widespread adoption of balanced fertilizers by farmers in the less-developed markets of sub-Saharan African countries to improve food and nutrition security.
He added that the FERARI Programme had instituted fertilizer platforms, made up of researchers and governments, to discuss measures to enhance the availability of fertilizers for farmers.
FERARI is a public-private programme in Ghana that integrates on the ground implementation to develop the fertilizer value chain with transdisciplinary research by PhD and Post-doctoral researchers.
The programme, which is co-founded by Mohammed Vl Polytechnic, IFDC amongst other institutions, will run from 2019-2024 in partnership with five universities in Ghana, as well as other universities in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Morocco.
GNA