By Comfort Sena Fetrie-Akagbor
Nyankpala, Oct 23, GNA – Dr Francis Kusi, Director of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI), says the CSIR-SARI has put in place strategies to boost productivity of farmers.
He said CSIR-SARI would achieve this through production of adequate foundation seeds to support the Planting for Food and Jobs phase two (PFJ 2.0) programme.
He said, “SARI is also strategically positioning itself to make quality improved seeds of legumes and cereals and planting materials of root and tubers available for uptake during the PFJ 2.0 and also to meet the seed needs of other programmes and projects in the country.”
Dr Kusi said this during a field day organised by CSIR-SARI at a technology park established to showcase technologies that the research hub is ready to scale-up to small, medium and commercial farmers as well as industry.
Participants included farmers, Agricultural Extension Agents (AEAs), processers, seed growers, input dealers and other stakeholders.
Different varieties of nine crops, maize, soyabean, cowpea, groundnut, cassava, sweet potato, yam, millet, and sorghum were showcased at the technology park.
Dr Kusi assured members of the public of the availability of foundation seeds for cultivation, adding partnership had been created with the media to support CSIR-SARI to promote the improved technologies among farmers and other stakeholders in the northern and other parts of the country.
He encouraged women and youth to take active part in agriculture for socio-economic transformation by adopting SARI’s technologies to improve their productivity.
Dr Charles Nelimor, Coordinator for Innovation Research, Extension and Advisory Coordination Hub (IREACH), who spoke about maize, said the high-yielding hybrid maize varieties developed by scientists from the CSIR-SARI had all been recommended for release by the National Varietal Release and Registration Committee (NVRRC).
He expressed hope that with the seed multiplication and dissemination plans in place, the foundation seeds would be available to farmers by the next cropping season to increase their productivity and to promote food security.
He said the high-yielding hybrid maize varieties were introduced by the Institute to respond to the nation’s challenge of lack of enough high-yielding hybrid maize varieties.
Dr Emmanuel Yaw Owusu, a Cowpea Research Scientist at CSIR-SARI, noted that CSIR-SARI had also designed a pre-programme on cowpea to improve its production technologies.
Dr Joseph Adjebeng-Danquah, a Principal Research Scientist on Root and Tuber, also showcased cassava, sweet potato and yam varieties at the exhibition.
GNA