Alternate Wetting and Drying water- saving irrigation technology to rice farmers

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Alternate Wetting and Drying water- saving irrigation technology to rice farmers

The Crops Research Institute (CRI) under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has introduced a water- saving irrigation technology called alternate wetting and drying to rice farmers at Weta in the Ketu North district of the Volta Region.

The gesture organized in collaboration with Lancaster University in the United Kingdom (UK) was a funded project led by Prof Ian Dodd of the Lancaster University, UK , and Dr Patricia Amankwaa-Yeboah, the African Lead Partner at CSIR-Crops Research Institute.

The project being implemented with a private company to facilitate commercialization of the product of the research, is aimed at promoting irrigation practices for rice production in hard-to-reach areas, where water is a challenge, especially during harmattan season.

Speaking at a field day organized for rice farmers at Weta, Dr. Patricia Amankwaa- Yeboah, a Senior Research Scientist with the CSIR-CRI explained that previous research had shown that the AWD technology could improve the level of micronutrients in rice grains if adopted by farmers.

She said a team of researchers were therefore investigating this assertion by evaluating different rice genotypes under AWD in field trials on several farmers’ fields across the country.

She continued that, this claims if found true could improve rice utilization in Ghana that would help to eliminate ‘hidden hunger’ in the country since rice was fast replacing several staples and indigenous foods in Africa.

Dr Amankwaa- Yeboah said the research done was to access and build on the advances and successes made by a previous GCRF funded project called Recirculate to boost rice micronutrient levels in Ghana using improved rice genotypes, hence the introduction of the technology.

She said the research on the AWD by CSIR-CRI and its partners in the UK over the past six years had brought out the numerous benefits associated with the new technology.

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