By D.I. Laary
Accra, Aug. 11, GNA – Ghana must put science at the centre of its Feed Ghana agenda to cut food imports, raise productivity and protect strategic crops from climate change, pests and diseases, CSIR officials have said.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) said tomato and ginger had become clear test cases for that agenda, with rising demand, weak local production, post-harvest losses and disease outbreaks exposing the structural gaps that continue to hold back the country’s food system.
The call was made during the second session of the 2026 Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) Visibility Webinar Series, held virtually on the theme: “CSIR’s Interventions on Tomato and Ginger.”
Prof. Mrs Marian Quain, the Deputy Director-General of CSIR, said the Council had been assigned July to lead the Ministry’s visibility webinar series.
She said flooding was discussed during the July 22 session, while tomato and ginger were selected for the second session.
The webinar, she said, enabled CSIR institutes to share their interventions with one another and stakeholders across the value chain.
She added that sustained engagement would strengthen CSIR’s role in supporting the country’s food systems.
Prof. Quain said the webinar was linked to the government’s Feed Ghana programme, a Ministry of Food and Agriculture initiative aimed at increasing productivity, strengthening food security, substituting imports and adding value.
She said tomato and ginger were strategic crops, but their production faced challenges from climate change, pests and diseases, declining soil fertility and post-harvest losses.
The CSIR, she said, was responding through research at the Crop Research Institute (CSIR-CRI) and Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI).
The interventions include climate-smart tomato breeding for rainy and dry seasons, as well as improved production technologies for tomato and ginger.
Research scientists at the session presented figures highlighting the scale of Ghana’s tomato supply challenge.
They stated that Ghana’s annual demand for fresh and processed tomatoes exceeded 1.4 million metric tonnes, while local production met only about 15 to 18 per cent of the demand.
That left a supply deficit of about 1.1 million tonnes, they said.
Fresh tomato imports, mainly from Burkina Faso, cost about US$18 million annually, while processed tomato imports, largely from China and Europe, cost about US$150 million in raw tomato equivalent.
The scientists said combined tomato imports exceeded US$230 million annually yet filled only about 40 per cent of the supply shortfall.
Dr. Michael Kwabena Osei, Principal Research Scientist and vegetable breeder at CSIR-CRI, said Ghana’s challenge was not land availability but rather technology, seeds, irrigation, and agronomy.
“A country that imports its seed will always import its food,” he said, noting that more than 85 per cent of the tomato seed planted in Ghana was imported commercial hybrid seed.
He said average tomato yields in Ghana remained between seven and 10 tonnes per hectare, although improved varieties and good management could increase yields to between 20 and 80 tonnes.
The situation with ginger was also challenging. Researchers said a bacterial wilt outbreak in 2022 had reduced national production to roughly 10 tonnes, leaving Ghana more than 99 per cent dependent on imports.
Dr Osei said the way forward required “policy to protect, research to solve, and market to make profit.”
He said that would require better seed systems, climate-smart varieties, disease control, irrigation, processing, and stronger links between research, farmers and markets.
Rev. Dr Cephas Adjei Mensah, the Director of Research, Statistics and Information Management at the MESTI, said tomato and ginger were central to Ghana’s food system, agribusiness and economy.
He noted that achieving the Feed Ghana programme’s objectives of securing food, boosting production and reducing import dependence would require strong investment in science, technology and innovation.
He congratulated scientists at the CSIR-CRI and CSIR-SARI and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening the research ecosystem.
GNA
Edited by Benjamin Mensah
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