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.”
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
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE
Pix:Prof John Gyapong,