International scientists worried about Ghana's limited resources for Agric research

International Scientists have expressed concern about what they say is limited resources for agricultural research and implementation of recommendations in Ghana which they say threatens the country’s food security.

They are meanwhile commending Nigeria for taking Agric research and implementation serious.

“Nigeria develops a lot of outstanding innovations in the Agric sector because their previous Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akin Adesina, was a researcher… But Ghana, there is even limited support for research because we actually don’t use the results from research…. Maybe we use it but to a very limited extent,” Ghanaian Researcher at the ZEF Center for Development Research of the University of Bonn in Germany, Dr Justice Tambo told Joy News.

It would be recalled the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has expressed equal concerns about the lack of investments in agricultural research, expressing worry this is negatively affecting their work. 

Dr. Tambo was speaking to Joy News’ Joseph Opoku Gakpo after a panel discussion on “sustainable solutions for global agriculture,” as part of the annual congress of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) in Bonn, Germany.

The congress brought together more than 200 journalists and Agric communicators from around the world to discuss how to ensure sustainable agriculture.

“The policy makers probably don’t use the results because they don’t trust us or because they have not invested in it,” Dr Tambo observed.

“The foods we import are mostly produced by few countries in the world so if there is any crisis in the producing countries, it may result in in hunger, uprising and other negative outcomes in the importing countries,” the Ghanaian academic explained.  

Also featured on the panel discussion was Kenyan senior researcher at the Center Dr. Oliver Kiptoo Kirui who called for increased innovations to transform the economics of agriculture.

The congress additionally elected Canadian journalist, columnist and university lecturer, Owen Roberts as a new president of the IFAJ. US citizen Steve Werblow and Swedish Lena Johansson were elected secretary and vice chairpersons of the association respectively.

Director of the ZEF Center for Development Studies of the University of Bonn, Joachim Von Braun called for more investments from the private sector into agricultural production in Africa.

“If you look at Africa, government expenditures in the agricultural sector have added at least 50 percent since the last one and half decades, so a turning point has been reached and more attention needs to pay to Agric investment…public investment is happening and let us join with private investments,” he said at the forum.

Chairwoman of the German Guild of Agric Journalists which hosted the congress, Dr. Katharina Seuser called on stakeholders to do more to preserve Agric resources even in the light of intensified agricultural production.