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10.07.2013 General News

Project on post-harvest yam losses begins in Kumasi

10.07.2013 LISTEN
By Daily Graphic

The Australian High Commissioner, Ms Joanna Adamson, performed the ceremony for the work to begin last Saturday.

The project, dubbed: "Improved yam storage for food security and income" ,is being funded by the Australian government under the AusAID Development Research Awards (ADRA) scheme .

It is expected to assess and promote not only best-practice yam storage systems, but that those  use locally relevant technologies would meet the needs of local communities.

The two-year project is being undertaken jointly by the College of Agriculture and Natural Resource of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Techology (KNUST) and the Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Ms Adamson indicated that, support for the programme was part of the commitment by her country to bolster agricultural development through research, improved techniques and practices to benefit Ghanaian farmers and the people in general.

She said with the global demand for food predicted to increase by 60 per cent by the year 2050, it was essential to address issues of storage, market access and equitable economic benefits for farmers.

The high commissioner cited how her country was partnering Ghana to train more than 300 extension officers in all the 10 regions of the country to build their capacity in contemporary extension delivery methods.

Ms Adamson said the project would be jointly supervised by a project team, professors, and experts in Australian universities to allow for effective work.

The Vice-Chancellor of the KNUST, Professor William Otoo Ellis, decried the high rate of post-harvest losses associated with the yam sector and, therefore, advocated more research to address this challenge.

GNA

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