Participants including farmers, extension officers as well as food and agricultural officers learned modern methods in maize, yam and rice production, rapid multiplication of cassava planting materials, modern methods of soybeans, sweet potato, and cowpea production.
Learners visited the rice and sweet potato fields at the CSIR-CRI.
Certified seeds and planting materials were presented to farmers for cultivation on their fields, where researchers will follow up for close monitoring and further education.

Professor Maxwell Darko Asante, Director, CSIR-CRI, opening the training at Fumesua near Kumasi, said the sessions were linked to the research institution’s technology park, and it was expected that, these beneficiaries learned and implemented the modern practices in their localities, while training other people.
He added that, “it is important to train farmers in scientific ways. We cannot continue to use old methods to do things due to how fast the world is moving.”

The target, he noted, was to eventually improve productivity on farmers’ fields.
Prof. Asante mentioned that, CRI had worked hard to develop climate-smart nutrient-dense varieties, adding that, most of these varieties including the ‘Agyapa Rice’ was spreading throughout Ghana and beyond citing that, farmers were getting eight (8) tons/ha in the field, which was a positive signal.
According to him, the government and private partners needed to continue investing and making policies that would increase production levels and secure food systems.
He explained, “productivity did not go with technologies alone. It always went well with investment and policy,” which was why all hands should be on deck to invest and invent agricultural policies.

Prof. Emmanuel Otoo, a representative of CORAF-FSRP Programme, believed that once the population was growing and farming population increasing, equipping the sector with better tools would ensure that they would be able to produce enough for export.

Mr Richard Yeboah, an Agricultural Extension Officer and farmer from Nsuta, sharing his experience with the Ghana News Agency after the training, said going through the modern methods in planting yam, he was going to get many sizeable (4,500 tubers) tubers on an acre of land using the ridge planting methods