SARI 2013 Annual Report

2013

English

The CSIR-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute continued to live up to its mandate of providing farmers in Northern Ghana with appropriate technologies to increase their food and fiber crop production based on a sustainable production system which maintains and/or increases soil fertility. The year 2013 was very productive with the release of five improved drought tolerant maize varieties. With climate change that we are currently experiencing, the quantity and distribution of rainfall which cannot be determined based on the long term weather data available. Plant Breeders are now braced for it, and are gearing towards developing crop varieties from early or extra-early to drought tolerant to enable our numerous farmers get something to feed their households in very bad years. Moreover, as a result of continuous farming, pests and diseases have built up and are becoming resistant to pesticide. Hence efforts are being made to get crop varieties that are tolerant to stresses like pests and diseases, low soil nitrogen and more importantly the parasitic weed – striga. The new drought tolerant maize varieties have been deployed into the farming systems of Northern Ghana to give meaning to “Better tools, better harvests and better lives”. Efforts have been intensified towards enhancing production and access to striga control in maize to sustainably produce the crop in striga endemic farming communities. The Institute also released three soybean varieties into the farming systems during the year under review. The improved varieties combine earliness with high yielding and good shattering ability as well as good trap trait for striga control. The crop improvement programme is generally making strides in developing crop varieties that fits into the agroecologies of the mandate zone. Pearl millet improvement has had no improved pearl millet varieties beside Manga nara which was released in the colonial era. Research is far advanced for five improved pearl millet varieties to be proposed for consideration for release in 2014. The soil improvement programme continues to develop innovative strategies to boost maize-based cropping system productivity in northern savannah zones through widespread adoption of integrated soil fertility management. Adoption of best practices by farmers resulted in maize yield of as much as 3-4 t/ha. Further studies on inoculation of soybean with rhizobium also resulted in 30-40% yield increase at farmer level. With the completion of work on the installation of the facility for confined field trial on developing a Maruca-resistant cowpea, the National Biosafety Committee has permitted SARI to conduct the first trial in 2013. Our scientists continued to mobilize resources through attraction of funding from research proposals/contract research to ensure that the Institute is prepared to take on challenges and build capacities of partners/students in the geographical mandate. All these have resulted in a stronger organization with a more relevant and focused science platform, responsive staff and more effective institutional mechanisms to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in operations, proactive and more strategic partnerships and networks, and an increase in resources that would facilitate the success of its farming systems research programmes. I would like to thank the staff for their hard work and commitment. I encourage all to work even harder to make sure that SARI succeeds in its vision of making agricultural research responsive to farmer needs and national development. My thanks go to all donors, especially AGRA, DANIDA, USAID, EMBRAPA and others that have supported us during the course of the year. Our appreciation also goes to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and numerous press houses that helped us disseminate our technologies. We hope that you will enjoy reading this report with much pleasure. Never hesitate to consult us for any of the technologies we have developed.

CSIR-SARI