Kwadaso (Ash), March 9, – The Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, in collaboration with Korea Partnership for Innovation of Agriculture (KOPIA) Ghana, has initiated a project aimed at boosting tomato production in Ghana using climate-smart greenhouse technologies.
The two-year initiative, titled “Establishing Climate-Smart Greenhouse Technologies for Sustainable Tomato Production in Ghana,” is funded by the Korean government through Rural Development Administration–KOPIA.
Under the project, new tomato lines from the World Vegetable Center will be tested at the CSIR-CRI facility in Kumasi and the KOPIA Centre in Ghana.
Selected varieties will also be cultivated in greenhouses across the Ashanti Region, Bono Region and Volta Region to support training programmes for tomato farmers.
The project seeks to identify high-yielding and disease-resistant tomato varieties, promote greenhouse technologies and assess the economic and environmental benefits of greenhouse-based tomato production.
It also aims to strengthen the capacity of smallholder farmers to produce quality tomatoes while reducing pest and disease outbreaks.
Dr Michael Kwabena Osei, Project Leader and Tomato Breeder at CSIR-CRI, said greenhouse cultivation had emerged as a promising option for improving tomato yields, product quality and profitability.
Speaking at the project’s inception meeting at Kwadaso near Kumasi, he noted that although the technology offered significant potential, greenhouse tomato farming in Ghana remained at an early stage.
He said many smallholder farmers lacked the skills, knowledge and resources required to adopt the technology.
Dr Osei explained that tomato remained one of the most widely consumed vegetables in Ghana, with annual demand estimated at about 1.4 million metric tonnes.
However, local farmers produced only about 34 per cent of the country’s requirements, making imports necessary to bridge the supply gap.
He added that traditional farming methods continued to dominate tomato production, resulting in relatively low yields ranging between 7.5 and 10 metric tonnes per hectare.
Other challenges confronting the sector, he said, included pest and disease outbreaks, inconsistent quality of produce and limited profitability for farmers.
GHBUSS
9 March 2026
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