Ghana: India supports project on tomato cultivation

(AGI) - Accra, 4 ago. - India is supporting Ghana to implement a project on tomato production for the purpose of addressing problems associated with tomato cultivation in the country. The project was triggered with the Government of Ghana making a formal request in May 2010 with a letter from the office of the Vice-President seeking India's support to set up a pilot research project for tomato production in Ghana. Accordingly, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Indian National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in January, 2013 for implementation of the project at three locations: Kumasi, Ada and Navrongo. The Ministry of External Affairs in India authorised $2.088 million financial assistance for the implementation of the project through NRDC. The project, which is being spearheaded partly by Ghana's Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), and the India High Commission in Ghana, became fully operational in 2015. Cultivation is already in progress in Kumasi and would start at Ada this month and in Navrongo in October 2016. The project seeks to conduct applied research in the agro-climatic regions of Ghana with a view to evolving effective cultivation techniques and measures to achieve higher yield of good quality tomato under local conditions. The NRDC, jointly with the CSIR, conducted an evaluation study and prepared the proposal for setting up of the project. As part of the implementation, a Project Monitoring Committee (PMC) arrived in Ghana in July 2016 to review the progress of the project and to visit all the three project sites at Navrongo, Kwadaso and Ada. The first PMC meeting was held on July 21, 2016 at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It was jointly chaired by the heads of the two implementing agencies: the Director-General of CSIR, Dr Victor K. Agyeman from Ghana, and the Chairman and Managing Director of the National Research Development Cooperation (NRDC), New Delhi, India, Dr H. Purushotham. In attendance was the Deputy India High Commissioner to Ghana. The NRDC is further supporting the CSIR to establish incubation centres to promote start-ups at the council. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed to this effect by Dr Purushotham and Dr Agyeman in the presence of Mr Pradeep K. Gupta, Deputy High Commissioner of Indian Mission in Ghana. (AGI) .