By: Catherine Ahiador:
Dr. Wilhelmina Quaye, a resource person from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has underscored the fact that research results are very vital and important and that personnel who are trained to guide farmers on plant research works must work actively with the farmers. This, she said would help bring to light the importance of plant research works and its results to the farmers.
Dr. Quaye made the call during a presentation at the launch of the Agriculture Research for Adoption Network (ARAN). ARAN is one of the nine Champions for Change (C4C) Networks established by the Feed the Future and USAID funded Africa Lead program. At the event which was held on Thursday at the Airside Hotel at the Airport Residential Area in Accra, Madam Quaye also encouraged farmers to report cases of pest and diseases to plant doctors. This she noted would prompt the plant doctors to examine the cause of the disease and would know how to control it.
She was also convinced that The Agricultural Research Council ultimately produces knowledge to farmers but this will only have an impact if it is understood and accessed by target beneficiaries such as farmers, fisher folks, policy makers, research practitioners and other agricultural and state developmental agencies to inform their decision making body about the result of their findings.
ARAN also aims to identify appropriate agricultural technologies and innovation for adoption in Ghana and the sub region as it promotes best practices and enhances the relationship between end users and researches.
The objectives of ARAN among others are to identify appropriate agricultural technologies and innovations for adoption, promote and disseminate appropriate agricultural technologies and innovations for adoption, strengthen the relationship between researches and end users as well as to promote best practices and lessons learnt.
Dr. Charles Tortoe, also a CSIR resource person present at the workshop spelled out the objectives of the workshop. According to him, the objective behind the event was to bring together young researchers, students, extension personnel, farmers, fisher folks, representatives from the Ministry Of Food And Agriculture, policy makers as well as donors to come together and discuss the most effective ways of communicating research result to different audience other than published journals.
He also explained that the intension behind the workshop was to serve as a platform to officially launch the Agriculture Research For Adoption Network.
‘There have also been a lot of agencies, both government and donor agencies who are to support agriculture research works; however, the activities of ARAN is aimed at producing new products and technologies by resource persons to help improve the lives of the poor farmers,’ Dr. Tortoe stressed.
The Stakeholder Engagement Workshop was to provide a platform for beneficiaries of research knowledge such as policy makers, farmers, fisher folks and other agencies to engage directly with researchers on the best ways to present research knowledge to them.
Source: ritefmonline.org
