“I’m here to produce results”- Dr Kwaku Afriyie Declares

The Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Kwaku Afriyie has reiterated government commitment to ensure that the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is well-positioned to develop appropriate technologies for sustainable food and industrial crops production to enhance livelihoods.

To this end, the Minister has pledged to do everything within his mandate to minimize the challenges that impact negatively on the country’s research institutions.

“I’m here to produce results.  There is a disconnect between the society at large and research institutions.  We have to put science at the center of all we do,” he stated.

The Minister was speaking at the Crop Research Institute as part of a 4-day working tour of some institutes under the CSIR in the Ashanti Region.

Outlining his vision for the sector, Dr Afriyie stressed that by the end of his tenure, “science must permeate into the cultural ethos of the Ghanaian population. Ghanaians should be speaking science every day and that’s what we have set ourselves to do.”

Dr Kwaku Afriyie noted that over the years, CSIR has contributed towards Ghana’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP) through the transfer of various agricultural technologies for farmers, farmer-based organization, and government’s agricultural initiatives such as Planting for Food and Jobs and Planting for Export and Rural Development “without sufficient acknowledgement.”

“I intend to abolish this and put you (CSIR) high on the Ghana scientific industrial map,” he pledged