India and Ghana have signed a memorandum of understanding between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi, and the CSIR-Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI), Accra, on agricultural research, education and technology transfer. The signing was attended by India's External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar and Ghana's Minister for Foreign Affairs Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.
The five-year MoU covers joint research, scientific and technological exchange, capacity building, and the application and commercialisation of farm technologies. Arima Farms Ltd., Ghana, which facilitated the agreement, is recognised as CSIR-CRI's commercial partner for specific research and commercialisation work under it.
The first phase focuses on vegetables, above all tomato. ICAR is to help scale up proven technologies and introduce suitable high-yielding tomato lines and varieties to strengthen Ghana's domestic tomato production. The partnership also covers processing and value addition for cassava, yam and other tuber crops, and post-harvest management, with technical support and training in cold storage, refrigerated transport, sorting, grading and processing to cut losses.
The agreement provides for the exchange of scientists, germplasm and breeding material, scientific information and methods, joint research projects and links between institutes in the two countries. A Joint Working Group of ICAR and CSIR-CRI representatives will review progress and meet periodically in New Delhi and Accra.
The two sides present the pact as part of India's South-South and India-Africa cooperation, aimed at linking research, technology development and commercial use to improve farm livelihoods in Ghana.
Photo: Attah Mohammed / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Global Agriculture
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