Dons ask ACE, WACCI to address food insecurity in Africa

NaijaAgroNet:

 Some university lecturers in Ghana have called on Africa Centres of Excellence (ACEs) and West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), to address the problem of food insecurity, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Ghana (UG) in-charge of Research, Innovation and Development, Prof John Gyapong, charged ACEs to help address the problem of food insecurity in West Africa through the training of plant breeders who will develop superior crop varieties of staple crops.

While the Director, WACCI, Professor Eric Yirenkyi  Danquah, on the other hand, said that after a rigorous, transparent and merit-based evaluation, WACCI and ACEs were selected to receive eight million dollars, about N1.59billion each as a project grant from the World Bank and recounted achievements of the centre to include the newly established Vegetable Innovation Laboratory (VIL) as part of efforts to promote vegetable production and food security in Ghana and the sub-region, saying that the VIL thematic areas include genetic improvement; vegetable production and quality control; processing; value chains and socio-economic research; policy research and knowledge management systems

The duo, NaijaAgroNet learnt, were speaking at a forum organized by WACCI of the University of Ghana (UG) for the five World Bank Africa Centres of Excellence (ACEs) in agriculture.

The forum titled, “Workshop for the Agriculture Education Front-runners in West Africa: ACE’s Learning Experience at WACCI” was on: “The march towards food security in Africa.”

Gyapong said the West African sub-region is looking up to the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) to train a critical mass of quality PhD graduates, NaijaAgroNet informs,

The program drew 52 participants, including scientists, researchers, Centre and Management staff from West and Central Africa the purpose of which was to allow the ACEs draw on lessons from the experiences of WACCI and also exchange institutional best practices.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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Pix:Prof John Gyapong,

Decisive actions needed for small scale farmers development-IITA boss

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Director General, Dr. Nteranya Sanginga has affirmed the need for decisive actions to help small-scale farmers in order for food security in Africa not to remain elusive with isolated successes.

Speaking in Australia recently at the Crawford Fund annual conference, Dr. Sanginga said the assistance for the farmers should be to help them grow more valuable crops.

IITA revealed to NaijaAgroNet in a press statement that low soil fertility and nutrient depletion are obstacles to food security in the continent despite the achievement recorded in crop improvement.

A back up of the IITA boss about land depletion is a recent study by the institute conduction in Great Lakes region of East Africa which showed the majority of the soils in that region are now barren with very little fertility.

IITA attributed the barrenness of the soil to years of mining as well as insufficient replacement of nutrients by smallholder farmers.

Dr. Sanginga also advocated the adoption of Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM), the application of soil fertility management practices, and the knowledge to adapt these to local conditions.

The ISFM, he said would optimise fertilizer and organic resources use efficiency and crop productivity.

According to the Dr. Sanginga, the ISFM presents a means to overcome the dilemma of low productivity which is attainable by offering better returns for investment in fertilizer to farmers.

Yinka Awosanya

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