New Delhi: India and Ghana have signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen cooperation in agricultural research, education, technology transfer and commercialisation.
The agreement was signed between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Ghana’s Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI), Accra. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Ghanaian Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa were present at the signing ceremony.
The partnership will focus on joint agricultural research, scientific and technological exchanges, capacity building and the application and commercialisation of agricultural technologies. Arima Farms Ltd., Ghana, has been recognised as the commercial partner to CSIR-CRI for specific research and commercialisation activities under the framework.
The first phase of the collaboration will focus on vegetable crop research, particularly tomato development. ICAR will support the scaling up of proven technologies and the introduction of suitable high-yielding tomato lines and varieties to help strengthen domestic tomato production in Ghana.
The partnership will also cover processing and value addition of cassava, yam and other tuber crops, with the aim of strengthening agricultural value chains.
Post-harvest management will be another key area, including technical support and capacity building in cold storage, refrigerated transportation, sorting, grading and processing technologies to help reduce post-harvest losses.
The MoU provides for the exchange of scientists and technologists, germplasm and breeding materials, scientific information, methodologies and technical knowledge. It also envisages joint research projects and institutional linkages between relevant research centres in India and Ghana.
A Joint Working Group comprising representatives of ICAR and CSIR-CRI will oversee the cooperation, review its progress and guide implementation. The group will meet periodically in New Delhi and Accra.
The partnership is expected to strengthen the link between agricultural research, technology development, capacity building and commercial application, supporting the adoption of relevant technologies and contributing to sustainable agricultural development and improved livelihoods in Ghana.
