Two new varieties of rice have been introduced in Bongo District in Ghana. (CSIR-SARI) developed and released the varieties as part of the implementation of Integrated Pest Management Using Rice Varieties and Good Agronomic Practices.
The two new early maturing and climate smart rice varieties dubbed AGRA and Banse Rice have been introduced to rice farmers at Nyariga, a community in the District. Apart from the AGRA and Banse Rice varieties which are high yielding and pest tolerant, the farmers were also introduced to best agronomic practices including seed selection, transplanting, fertiliser application, pest control and harvesting among others.
The project being implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Modernising Agriculture in Ghana with financial support from Global Affairs Canada is being piloted in five regions across the country.
Importation of rice
The beneficiary regions are Upper East, Volta, Bono, Ashanti and Eastern. Dr Samuel Mahama, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, CSIR at the Head Office, noted that the project aimed to address issues of pest infestation, low yields and quality of rice and boost local production to help cut down importation.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ghana spends close to $1 billion on the importation of rice annually and between 2017 to 2020, the government spent GH₵6.874 billion to import only rice into the country.
Dr Mahama said the successes of the project which would be scaled up to benefit more farmers was part of efforts to complement government’s campaign for the consumption of locally produced rice to increase the revenue of farmers and develop the economy.
Dr Issah Sugri, Senior Research Scientist, CSIR-SARI, Manga Station, noted that due to climate change impact and erratic rainfall pattern, farmers needed to be supported to venture into early maturing and high yielding varieties coupled with best agronomic practices to increase production.
Dr Sugri stated that AGRA and Banse rice matured between 95 to 120 days and 80 to 90 days respectively. He added that farmers could engage in multiple cropping within a year to meet the increasing demand for varieties, particularly the AGRA.
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