Professor Elvis Asare-Bediako, the Vice-Chancellor, University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), has called for more support from the Government in aid of research and development in plant virus disease control.
He said it would help to strengthen the collaboration among scientists and virologists at the institutional, regional and national levels.
Prof Asare-Bediako was speaking at a public lecture organised by the University’s Public Lectures’ Committee on the theme: “Plant Viruses: A Threat to National Food Security.”
Prof. Asare-Bediako said adequate funding must be provided to effectively address plant virus problems in Ghana and Africa because most of the researches conducted in “the country are donor-funded which comes with its research objectives.”
He said modern laboratory equipment and supplies were of critical importance in plant virology, adding it was also essential to train adequate skilled manpower for virus detection, diagnosis and control.
Prof. Asare-Bediako emphasised that a high population would increase demand for food, saying there was the need to boost agricultural production to meet the increasing demand for food to ensure food and nutrition security.
He explained: “Food security exists when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”
Prof. Asare-Bediako noted that food security was at the top of the list of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the aim of eradicating hunger and poverty.
“As agriculture struggled to support the rapidly growing global population…ant disease reduces the production and quality of food, fibre and biofuel crops.”
He said, “catastrophic plant disease exacerbates the current deficit of food supply which several millions of people, especially in sub-Saharan Africa are inadequately fed, leading to hunger and starvation.”
Prof. Yaw Ofosu-Kusi, the Chairman of the Public Lectures Committee, who doubles as the Dean of the School of Arts and Social Sciences in an earlier address, said the global effort to preserve humanity through a thorough understanding of viruses that affect humans was just one part of humanity’s existential challenges.
He stated another part in the preservation of human life was the understanding of how viruses impact plants and food sources, saying their negative impact militated against the survival of humankind, but “we owe a great deal of our existence on earth to the existence of plants.”