Northern Regional Co-ordinating Council, Chinese institute sign agric tech agreement

The Northern Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Science, a Chinese research institute, on agricultural technology cooperation to boost food production in the region.

Under the agreement, which was signed in Tamale last Tuesday, the two partners are expected to share knowledge in the areas of agricultural production and information technology, undertake exchange programmes and train researchers and technicians.

The MoU is an expansion of an existing partnership between the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) at Nyankpala in the region and the Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Science that focused on knowledge sharing on agricultural technology.

Agreement

The Northern Regional Minister, Mr Salifu Saeed, signed on behalf of the RCC, while the Director of the Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Science, Mr Yin Jianhua, signed for the institute.

The minister described the partnership as a laudable initiative that would help boost agricultural production in the region through knowledge sharing and capacity building.

He said Ghana had, over the years, benefited much from the Chinese government through many initiatives, including partnerships and exchange programmes.

Commitment

Mr Saeed expressed the government’s commitment to modernise agriculture in the country through the introduction of innovative technology, adding that Ghana had a huge potential in agriculture but lacked the technology to explore that potential.

Support

For his part, Mr Jianhua said agriculture was an important aspect of every nation's economy and gave an assurance that the academy would support Ghana to improve on its agricultural sector.

According to him, the new agreement would allow the two partners to expand the existing agreement signed about five years ago to cover areas such as crop and vegetable production and information technology.