Fatima Anafu-Astanga
Manga (UE), April 9, GNA -Dr. Julius Yirzagla, Senior Research Scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Savannah Agricultural Institute (CSIR –SARI) has stated that farmer preferences to crop variety are key to the development of the seed.
Dr Yirzagla said it was necessary to involve farmers and let them participate in the seed variety selection processes before any new variety of seed could be released.
“We are supposed to release seeds in consultation with farmers and they give us their preferences and characteristics needed and while doing this, we also engage them in field demonstration to ensure good agronomic practices are carried out in collaboration with extension staff of Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA),” Dr Yirzagla said.
Dr Yirzagla made the statement in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Manga in the Bawku Municipality in response to names and crop varieties farmers give to their crops that eventually become common names among them and households.
The researcher said: “When a particular National Crop Variety is being released, the National Variety Release and Registration Committee gives SARI the options to decide on what names to be given to varieties under consideration, thus an official name is first assigned before the release.”
Farmers get used to their local names and even when the variety is officially released, they still use the local names which is not the best, he added.
Dr Yirzagla said a particular millet variety known as ‘Bongo short head,’ was released recently, but farmers started using their own names for it.
“Any genotype that is not officially released to farmers is not encouraged, which means only a genotype that has been officially released is given to the farmers,” he said.
Meanwhile some concerns were raised in a recent workshop of tomato farmers and stakeholders, about a “NO NAME” variety and though farmers have expressed interest in the variety for its good yields, the researcher noted that it was not a released variety.
“We give names to only varieties that are officially released,” Dr Yirzagla said.
The ‘No Name’ is particularly a predominant variety in tomatoes among farmers in the Upper East Region, but the researcher indicated that the variety had not been nationally approved though some farmers were using it.
He urged farmers to consult the research station and find out from the experts if they found any variety exciting and want to try them.
“Our doors are opened to help,” he said, and added that farmers needed to verify and ensure the safety of new varieties to consumers and the environment.
GNA
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