Work begins on $15m WAAP office complex

A $15 million office complex for the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme (WAAPP) at the Crop Research Institute (CRI) took off at the weekend at Fumesua in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality.

The project is scheduled for completion within 10 months and id being funded by government.

WAAPP is a two-phased 10-year project designed to promote, among other things, regional co-operation in technology generation and dissemination between Ghana, Mali and Niger, a national centre of specialisation and demand-driven technology adoption.

Dr Hans Adu-Dapaah, Director of the CRI, said the goal was to ensure the transfer of improved technologies in the participating countries top priority commodities.

In Ghana the focus would be on roots and tubers.

The National WAAPP Co-ordinator, Mrs Azarah Ali Mamshie, said the project would also seek to strengthen the mechanisms and procedures governing the registration and release of genetic materials and pesticides for domestic use and distribution.

Right Reverend Professor Osei Sarfo Kantanka, Chairman of CRI Management Board, said under the project, alignment of national and regional priorities would be put on a higher pedestal.

There would also be more attention on project co-ordination, management, monitoring and evaluation.

He urged the participating countries to focus on their top priority commodities if they were to make the best out of their scarce resources to achieve meaningful results.

Source: GNA