An Associate Professor with the University of Cape Coasts’ School of Agriculture, Professor Ernest Teye has developed an analytical portable hand-held device for onsite detection of fertilizer integrity and the prediction of soil nutrients.
This near-infrared spectroscopy coupled to the mobile phone portable device used for the quality of fertilizers and continuous soil prediction is the first of its kind to be introduced in the country.
This was made known at the 2022 Second Seminar Series of the School of Agriculture, UCC which was instituted to enable faculty members to share their relevant research findings and technologies with stakeholders and the general public.
In a presentation on “Promoting Food and Agricultural Input Integrity; the Way Forward, Professor Teye stressed that this invention is intended to put technology in the hands of the farmer and quality control experts in the food value chain.
This he notes will help in addressing the integrity challenges in fertilizer application and soil classification in agricultural production.
According to him, a review done in Sub-Sahara Africa revealed that ‘most of the Agro inputs are having a questionable integrity’ as such he decided to find a solution within his capacity as food science and engineer
As a result, he shared the result saying “with at the end of the study, we realized that we could use near-infrared spectroscopy coupled to the mobile to detect onsite fertilizer integrity-whether the fertilizer is adulterated or fake or any illicit agrochemicals and in terms of even classifying the amount of nutrients in the soil. Am sure the farmers are aware that fertilizers sold in certain bags are not the ones they have reported to be.”
“Again, we also know that farmers are aware that sometimes they apply the fertilizer and they do not get the yields even though it’s written fertilizer A on it but it could be that they have put in fertilizer B. So, with this technology, the farmer can be able to predict.” He continued.
He, therefore, called for mass support to further expand this demand-driven initiative as this, he says will help in addressing the questionable and continuous low agricultural inputs in Ghana.
He added that it will also enhance the planting for food and jobs flagship program, create more jobs and make agriculture attractive to the teaming youths.
“Is a long chain and everybody is part of the chain and therefore all hands on deck to be able to ensure that farmers get the right inputs for the right crop they produce.” He emphasized.
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Source: Eric Sekyi/ATLFMNEWS
