Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho
THE Oil Palm Research Institute (OPRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the University of Nottingham, UK have won a £385,500 research grant to investigate the Cape Saint Paul Wilt, a disease that has led to the destruction of many coconut farms in the Western and Central Regions of Ghana.
Known in scientific circles as the phytoplasma or Lethal Yellowing Disease, scientists say it has also destroyed millions of coconut plants across the world.
In Ghana, it is estimated that about one million coconut plants have been destroyed within the last 30 years.
The Director-General of the CSIR, Professor Emmanuel Owusu-Bennoah, announced the research grant at the opening of a four-day international workshop on the disease in Accra on Tuesday.
The workshop, which is being organised by the Centre for International Co-operation in Agric Research and Development (CIRAD) in partnership with the CSIR with sponsorship from the French Embassy, brought together 57 research scientist from Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Jamaica, Guaremala-Honduras, Mexico and France.
According to Prof. Owusu-Bennoah, the research would involve the understanding of the transmission of the disease and the development of tolerant varieties of the coconut plants.
He said there were concerns that the disease-causing organism phytoplasma could be transmitted through the seed and, therefore, the Plant Protection and Regulatory Services of the CSIR had imposed severe restrictions on the movement of germplasm.
He added that to ensure security for the coconut industry, resistant germplants had to be exploited to improve varieties and hybrids for replanting.
He expressed the hope that the workshop will consider how the combination of fundamental research into seed transmission along with the development of tools for coconut breeding programmes will result in improved exploitation of coconut germplants as well as the identification of molecular markets that can be used in coconut breeding strategies to form the basis of a global partnership for development.
The Ambassador of France to Ghana, Mr Pierre Jacquemot, in his address said the government of France in collaboration with the government of Ghana had established a programme of co-operation research into agriculture in the country.
He said so far research had been conducted into rubber, cocoa, rice and presently coconut.
The Minister of State in charge of Education, Science and Sports, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, who formally opened the workshop, said the government was committed to ensuring that a solution was found to the disease in the country.
She, therefore, called for collaboration among scientists to help find a lasting solution across the globe to the disease.
The Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Ernest Debrah, said an estimated eight per cent of the Ghanaian population was dependent on the coconut plant.
Mr Debrah said Ghana had currently expanded its planting material base of coconut by cultivating two new, hybrid seed plantations comprising a 21.2 and 10 hectares each which were resistant to the disease in the Western Region, as well as a seven-hectare pollinator garden at Kumasi to reduce the nation’s importation of pollinators as well as to enable it have control over the purity of the pollens.
A Research Scientist, Dr Sylvester K. Dery, Head of OPRI, called on the government to incorporate the cultivation of coconut into the President’s Special Initiatives (PSI).
According to him, this would help boost the cultivation of the plant. He added that apart from it being a fruit, it was also used in the cosmetic, chemical and pharmaceutical industries throughout the world.
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