Improving Food Security in Ghana

Research effort in the past had concentrated on certain aspects of some major food and industrial crops such as cocoa, oil palm, tropical fruits, cereals, legumes, roots and tubers and vegetables. Although a lot has been achieved, a lot more needs to be done in other aspects of the traditional crops and others that had been neglected in order to achieve their full potential. In addition, some crops had not received research attention despite the fact that they contribute to food security. In the light of these, proposals have been developed to address certain problems associated with yield and quality reduction of certain food crops in order to realize the full potential of the crops for both local and export markets. In addition, a proposal has been developed on biotechnology as a tool for crop improvement in difficult areas, such as breeding for stress and pest resistance. In this regard, six proposals have been written to address crop production constraints. These are: (1) Improving Yield and Quality of rice in Ghana through improved agronomic and post-harvest technologies in inland valley systems, (2) Improvement of taro (Colocasia esculenta) production in Ghana through varietal selection and crop management, (3) Investigation into technologies for mass production of disease-free pineapple planting material in Ghana, (4) Pepper improvement for local and export markets, (5) The development of vegetable seed production system in Ghana, (6) The use of biotechnology as a tool for crop improvement, (7) The development of new products from the sweet potato crop and (8) The development of human resources to address the challenges of present-day problems militating against increased crop production. It is anticipated that when these technologies and human resource are developed, difficult areas in crop improvement, such as breeding of crops to withstand biotic and abiotic stresses will be overcome. In addition, production of traditional crops and others that had been neglected will increase to ensure food availability throughout the year. Also problems associated with malnutritional, excessive import of food, low incomes of farmers and the nation will be addressed. A total budget of $7,092,390 is being proposed for funding by the Agricultural Development Bank in support of the research activities that have been outlined in the main text.