Agricultural scientist, Professor Roger Kanton, has expressed deep concern over the chronic underfunding of research in Ghana, particularly in the agricultural sector, calling on the government to prioritie investment in homegrown research to drive national development.
Speaking at the Citi Business Forum on the theme Harnessing Agribusiness for Economic Growth: Expanding Ghana's Agribusiness Frontiers, he recounted his decades-long experience with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), highlighting the state's failure to fund meaningful research since the era of former President Jerry John Rawlings. "I have worked in CSIR for 31 years, and I only went on retirement in December 2021.
It was only during the time of President Rawlings that research was sponsored.
After that, all the other governments pay our salaries and provide office space - that's it," he lamented.
