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CSIR develops app to detect soil suitability for plants

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The Soil Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) says it is developing an app that will test the suitability of soils to determine crops to grow in all agricultural areas of Ghana.

Professor Mohammed Moro Buri, the Director of the Institute, said barring financial constraints, the app would be ready by the end of this year.

“This app, when it is ready, you type the name of your community or village and it pops up the names of the crop that can be grown in that area,” he told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing in Accra on Tuesday.

The PAC is a committee of Parliament of not more than 25 members, chaired by a member who does not belong to the party that controls the Executive branch of Government.

It examines the audited accounts showing the appropriation of the sums granted by Parliament to meet the public expenditure of government as presented to the House by the Auditor-General.

The Committee started public hearings last week to receive responses to queries raised in the Report of the Auditor General on the audited accounts of some government institutions for year 2017.

It was during the turn of the Soil Research Institute of the CSIR, when the Committee wanted to know why some inflows to the Institute had decreased, that the Director announced the development of the app, as a measure to raise some money for the Institute.

Prof Buri later told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that the Institute was having challenges with its Internally Generated Funds (IGF).

He identified the payment of electricity bills as the greatest challenge to its IGF.

“We don’t receive any finances for Goods and Services, particularly our utility bills. Electricity is the highest utility bills we have. Therefore, in order to maintain our activities, we need financial support,” Prof Buri said.

He said but for financial constraints, the app would already have been ready, adding that a token would be charged to subscribers to the app.

Prof Buri said the app would show the soil profile of an area, for which upon consultation, the Institute would assist with the kinds of crops suitable.

He mentioned maize, rice, soya bean and cassava as some crops that did well and could be generally grown anywhere in Ghana despite different soil profiles.

Prof Buri said the Institute had developed new mineral fertilizer applications and commended stakeholders for the support in developing the app, under the “Modernising Agriculture Programme,” and also from the Canadian Government.

He underscored the need to generate and exchange innovative scientific and technology information to support the growth of agriculture.

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