By Rachel Kakraba
Executive Director of the Food Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Prof. Charles Tortoe, has advocated deliberate policies that will establish a market for indigenous Ghanaian crops to improve the health and wellbeing of Ghanaians.
Prof. Tortoe suggested that such a market could start with the shea butter and gradually spread to other crops. This, he noted, will not only promote sustainable agriculture but also ensure a robust and resilient food system for the country.
“We need to specifically create markets for these indigenous crops. For Ghana, we can start with the shea butter market.”
Prof. Tortoe was delivering the keynote address at a validation workshop and policy dialogue on enhancing consumption of indigenous fruit and vegetables to improve diets in Ghana. He said indigenous vegetables and fruits have immense potential yet untapped, adding that linkages in the value chain must be enhanced for maximum benefit.
“We can also look at them in the sense of superfoods. That means they have this quality of nutrition of which we can tap in and make good use in terms of our nutrition needs as a country and even beyond our jurisdiction. There are some that come with very interesting antioxidants and anti-inflammatory as well as anti-carbohydrate properties.”
He said it is unfortunate that deforestation, bush burning, and illegal mining are contributing to the extinction of most Indigenous crops.
“A lot of these indigenous crops, which I’m sure when you were a kid you were familiar with, you go back to your community and you can’t find them again. These are the challenges we are facing with illegal logging, deforestation, and bushfires, especially the dry season, is also another challenge.”
Prof. Tortoe said data on the nutritional value of these indigenous crops could significantly improve its acceptance and called for investment in the sector. Prof. Tortoe encouraged the public to integrate indigenous fruits and vegetables into their eating habits.
“We need to integrate our indigenous crops into our food system so we can gain from it. We do agree that the indigenous crops in Ghana hold immense potential to enhance our food system, to promote our health and to support sustainable agriculture.”
He said investing in effective harvesting and storage technologies would also go a long way in addressing some of the challenges that confront the sector.
Food Microbiologist, Department of Crop Science, University of Ghana, and Project Lead, Dr. Gloria Essilfie, said the project “enhancing the production and consumption of African Indigenous fruits and vegetables to improve diets in Ghana and Mali” covers five areas, including identification and characterisation of selected indigenous fruits and vegetables, conducting value chain analysis of the selected indigenous crops, as well as improving postharvest handling and preservation of indigenous fruits and vegetables. The others are the establishment of an innovation centre for selected indigenous fruit and vegetable enterprises and the dissemination processes, technologies, and methods for prolonging the shelf-life of selected indigenous fruits and vegetables and creating awareness of the importance of indigenous fruits and vegetables.
All this she noted will go a long way to influencing policy briefs to enhance the production and consumption of indigenous fruit and vegetables to improve diets in both countries.
Dr. Essilfie explained that the value chain component will provide a better understanding of the vegetable and fruit value chain for large-scale production.
“It’s nutritious, but you know, some are volunteer crops, some are not even produced intentionally, and some are just produced, anyhow. So that’s the issue. So we want to do this value chain analysis and really understand the whole value chain.”
She called for concerted efforts in creating awareness on the benefits of Indigenous vegetables and fruits.
Indigenous vegetables and fruits remain an integral part of the diet of citizens of many Sub-Saharan African countries, including Ghana. They are essential sources of dietary components as they contain essential minerals and vitamins necessary for maintaining strong health and strengthening resistance to diseases and infection. Although it has many potentials, it is yet to be given its pride of place to improve the diets of citizens.
A major activity of the project is research to review the structural and systemic connections and dynamics of four selected indigenous crops in Ghana. The Consultant, Eric Worlanyo Deffor, sharing highlights of the study, noted that although the four crops studied have immense potential, they are confronted with some challenges.
“The project is basically about looking at the value chain for indigenous crops, looking at okra, kontomire, garden eggs, and turkey berry, from the production right up to the marketing and consumption. From the highlights, we realise that there is potential for growing these crops, but for now farmers are still having a lot of challenges. Challenge in terms of access to finance and access to inputs.”
He added, “The whole agenda is also to make sure that we can promote the turkey berries, especially as an export commodity within Ghana, because of the health values that is associated with it.”
Speaking to some of the recommendations, Mr. Deffor, said, “We want to look at how we can modernise our transport system to be able to convey our vegetables from the farm gate to the farms so that we still keep them intact and also maintain safety along the value chain.”
There was a panel discussion where discussants advocated deliberate plans and strategies that would help promote indigenous vegetables and fruits.
Source: gbcghanaonline.com