The Institute of Industrial Research (IIR) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has organised an Open Day as part of its series of stakeholder engagements for Work Package 3 of Recircualte Project.

"Recirculate" focuses on building and utilizing circular water economy, which aims at supporting new partnership approaches to enable African researchers and research institutions to make transformational impact through communities.

The Day was organised on the topic: "Water for Food Production" under the Work Package 3 which aims to identify what approaches to water efficient irrigation are most appropriate for the cultivation of fresh produce.

Farmers from three selected communities in the Central Region, namely Gomoa Okyereko, Baifikrom and Mankesim as well as some key stakeholders in the Agriculture Food Chain participated the event.

The occasion served as an advocacy tool and engagement strategy to raise awareness about the Recirculate Project and its activities in the development, transfer, and utilization of research findings.

It lso created the platform to exchange knowledge with the farmers and explore the commercial potential of irrigation scheduling which sought to address shortfalls in water availability for crop production for national development.

In an address, Mr. Joseph Yaw Amoah, Deputy Director, CSIR-IIR, highlighted the importance of the Open Day and CSIR's commitment to solving national problems through research to speed up Ghana's development.

He noted that the Open Day underscored the recognition by the research body to engage the public in its activities through open doors and to help stakeholders know more about CSIR and tap into its expertise.

"This Open Day, therefore, serves as a frontier for you to learn at first-hand through interaction," he said, while acknowledging organisations which help the Institute to get data to enrich its field research.

"It is about time Ghanaians tapped into the technologies and research findings from research communities like the CSIR. This, I believe will be an impetus for national development," he added.

Though, Mr. Amoah said there were challenges within the agribusiness sector, especially with access to funding opportunities and patronizing research outputs and technologies, farmers and stakeholders could utilise myriad of opportunities created by the Government in the sector.

He suggested they could form business networks and take advantage of the flagship schemes launched by the Government, like the One District, One Factory (1D1F) and the Planting for Food and Jobs, stressing, "These have the ability to improve your lot."

Dr. William Owusu Oduro, CSIR-IIR, Coordinator of Work Package 3 of the Recirculate Project, shed more light on the project with special emphasis of various Work Packages and their relevance to human sustenance and development.

He said the Project seeks to help minimize waste and maximize the benefits derived from natural resources and the environment.
One of the sessions which lasted almost two hours was mainly devoted to technical activities, knowledge sharing and interactions where scientific research findings met local knowledge and experience.

The 4-year Recirculate project, which is currently running in Ghana and funded by the Research Councils, UK through the Global Challenges Research Fund aims at growing research capability to meet the challenges faced by developing countries.