The School of Agriculture has held a research seminar for both faculty and students at the C. A. Ackah Lecture Theatre. Opening the programme, the Dean of the School, Prof. Elvis Asare-Bediako, underscored the need to learn and share knowledge from one another adding that “We do not want to have our research findings remain on shelves forever”. “You can be in animal science for example but you can learn from other areas as well as share what you have with others to make you a complete scientist”. The Dean of the School noted that, agriculture as a discipline was important to the society and therefore, it was crucial that such seminars were held to learn new developments in the sector. Prof. Asare-Bediako disclosed that the seminar series would be made mandatory for all faculty so that they would show their colleagues and the rest of the world what they profess. Prof. Asare-Bediako said to enrich the seminar, the organisers invited resource persons from outside to talk about what was happening on the field. He said through this, faculty would in turn determine what to do to complement what was being done by farmers. He advised participants to take keen interest in the seminar and share whatever knowledge they would acquire with others. Presenting on the topic “Metafrontier Analysis of Fish Farms in Ghana: An Empirical Evidence”, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Ghana, Rev. Dr. Edward Ebo Onumah said global fish stock was sturdily declining while both marine and inland fishing were also stagnating. In order to bridge the gap between domestic production and demand in fish production, Rev. Dr. Onumah said there was the urgent need to increase resources to the sector since current contribution was woefully inadequate. “Lack of resources to boost production in the fisheries sector means we will continue to experience little or inadequate fish production”, he said. In addition, Dr. Onumah mentioned that improvement in technical efficiency was paramount to any significant changes that could be made in the sector. He intimated that aquaculture had the capacity to meet the fish requirement of the country since there has been a constant increase in that area for some time now. Dr. Onumah also recommended that managers of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme must connect with fish farming since there was huge potential to feed the people as well as provide income to the huge pool of unemployed in the country. Even though he lauded the intent to use abandoned galamsey ponds for fish farming, he however, cautioned against the attempt since it could be detrimental to consumers, if the water was not properly tested. A farmer and Director of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation Centre for No-Till Agriculture at Amanchia, Okuani Kofi Boa, said as population increased and each ‘soul’ needed to be fed the land was degrading. “Previously the land was supporting food production, but currently the soil is destroyed and therefore, we now experience poor crop growth and yield”, he said. Okuani Boa called for a change from the old paradigm of agriculture to a new one saying “Indigenous knowledge and science give us hope, permanent soil cover and non-tillage are possible”.
