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China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
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Hohoe, Feb 20, GNA - A bacteria known as Rhizobia is capable of converting nitrogen gas into fertilizer for utilisation by plants even in the face of severe climatic conditions.
Professor Felix Dapare Dakora, President of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), said research discovery of Rhizobia bacteria in the soil had proven to thrive even in the face of frightening projections of the impact of climate change.
"Plants cannot utilise nitrogen gas on their own and science and technology is developing more crop species to withstand stress in relation to high temperatures, drought and other environmental factors."
Prof. Dakora in an interview with the Ghana News Agency therefore called for more funding of research-for-development (R&D)
He said that priority should be given R&D and devotion of more resources towards research work on the continent.
The AAS President said Bayer; a pharmaceutical firm was diversifying its mode of operation by investing $100 million into research that could make it possible for bacteria to fix nitrogen gas in all crop plants.
"This research will make nitrogen gas readily available to plants rendering the use of fertilizer, a thing of the past."
He said investing in traditional technologies that eliminates chemical residues in crop plants, which are noted for triggering the insurgence of dangerous diseases such as cancer, kidney problems, cardiovascular diseases and stroke could be minimised arbitrarily.
"Multinational pharmaceutical and chemical industries seemed to be thwarting the efforts for the use and promotion of organic means of fertilizer application."
He urged National Standards Authorities in Africa to step up their game in relation to the invasion and importation of herbicides, weedicides and pesticides, many of which have turned out to be toxic to the soil, water bodies and the environment in general.
Prof Dakora believed that science and technology held greater prospects to feed the continent's projected 2.5 billion population by 2050.
