As part of efforts to encourage the mechanization of agricultural labor in Ghana, the Crop Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have taken up A project labelled ‘Mechanization and Work in Agroecological Transitions (MechaWat)’, which seeks at industrializing plantain production and address labor scarcity through a mechanized agriculture.
The project was expounded during a workshop which aimed at giving farmers the opportunity to be briefed on measures being taken up to improve agricultural labor.
Speaking to the media, Dr. Natson Eyram Amengor attributed labor scarcity in agriculture to the youth’s unwillingness to join the sector.
“We believe that there are a lot of labor issues now. The youth are not willing to go into agriculture and those who are already inside are also aging. So it’s becoming very difficult now to get people to actually do a lot of the farmwork.”
“So we are looking at activities that could be done with mechanized tools that will reduce the excessive reliance on labor and also in one vein also prevent the issues that come with call labor unavailability.”
He also stated that the Crop Research Institute was looking at alternatives to reduce the use of agrochemicals in farming whilst increasing the mechanization
“We also are looking at reducing the use of agrochemicals. So if we could get mechanization tools that could be used at least to weed then it means the farmers will use less chemical because at the moment it is believed that they are using even way more than they are expected to use on their farms.”
Dr. Jonas Adu, who spoke to the farmers at the event on behalf of the Director of the CRI, highlighted that the workshop was also aimed at providing innovative and sustainable ideas for modifying current machinery to lessen the difficulties they faced.
“This project is very dear to our hearts as a Research Institute, in terms of how we can actually bring mechanization in plantain production to make sure that life becomes easy. Can you imagine planting with machines and also harvesting with machines? If you have about one hector of plantain how many people will you need to be able to harvest?”
In the quest to support the goals of the mechanization initiative, he further urged the farmers to make their challenges known.
“The issue of mechanization is very important but we cannot do that when we don’t know what you need as stakeholders. That is why this workshop is very important, so you can tell us what you expect from this project. And based on that, our Engineers can also support in terms of identifying the right machines and then the modifications that will be required.”
