THE Director of the Crop Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-CRI), Professor Maxwell Darko Asante, has underscored the urgent need for strong agricultural policies and private sector investment to drive productivity and ensure food security.

He cautioned that without deliberate investment and supportive policies, Ghana’s efforts to modernise farming and empower youth in agriculture would stall.

Prof. Asante was speaking to The Ghanaian Times at a two-day training workshop at Fumesua on Wednesday for youth and seed growers on good agronomic practices, organised under the sponsorship of West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development – Food Systems Resilience Programme (CORAF-FSRP). He stressed that technology alone could not transform agriculture.

“Productivity does not go with technology alone. It always goes with investment. We call on private sectors to invest in agriculture. No nation has developed without developing agriculture in a scientific way,” the Director of Crop Research stated.

Prof. Asante highlighted CSIR-CRI’s innovations in climate-smart technologies, noting that farmers can no longer rely on crop varieties developed decades ago in the face of climate change.

He cited the success of the Egyapa rice variety, which was yielding up to 8 tons per hectare in Dawhenya and had spread to Senegal and The Gambia.

With support from the Korean government, Prof. Asante said CSIR-CRI had produced large volumes of seed, making imports unnecessary.

He, therefore, called on government to introduce quota-based policies to regulate rice imports and protect local farmers.

“There are lots of rice at Asukwai but no buyers. Encouraging farmers to grow local rice without a market will discourage them. Policy is so important,” Prof. Asante stated.

The Coordinator for CORAF-FSRP, Prof. Emmanuel Otoo, in his overview of CORAF-FSRP, noted the ageing farming population and stressed the need to replace them with youth who are more open to modern tools and less burdened by the drudgery of traditional methods.

The training, he explained, was designed to expose young farmers to new technologies in crops such as sweet potato, yam, rice, maize, and soybean.

A member of CORAF-FSRP, Dr Jonas Osei-Adu, touched on the importance of partnership and added that farmers trained under the program would serve as ambassadors of technology transfer, propagating innovations to their peers.

He urged participants to keep proper records, stressing that data is critical for measuring progress and sustaining partnerships between researchers and farmers.

Some of the participants who interacted with The Ghanaian Times were full of praise to the Institute for the training as it has exposed them to modern methods of soybean, cassava, yam, and rice production.