The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has helped Ghana protect its national food production networks and curbed climate-driven agricultural losses by leveraging advanced crop technologies.
Speaking from Vienna, Austria, the Laboratory Head at the Plant Breeding and Genetics Section of the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre, Mr Elsadig Eltayeb Habora Amin, confirmed that member states are eligible for free scientific support to develop resilient crop varieties capable of surviving extreme weather anomalies.
The international support framework arrives at a critical period for Ghana’s agricultural economy, which has faced severe disruptions due to erratic rainfall patterns, unexpected dry spells, and spiking field temperatures.
The Joint FAO/IAEA Centre under the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications utilises controlled nuclear techniques, specifically radiation-induced mutation breeding, to safely accelerate the natural evolution of plants.
Mr Amin explicitly clarified to the Ghana News Agency that this precision methodology does not alter the safety of the food or produce radioactive crops, serving instead to uncover hidden genetic traits that tolerate extreme salinity, heat, and plant diseases.
Under the long-standing collaboration framework, the specialised facility has already received various indigenous crop materials from Ghanaian Agricultural Research Institutes for comprehensive molecular assessment.
The operational pipeline allows participating nations to submit local seeds or vegetative tissue to the Vienna laboratory.
Here, technicians use X-rays or gamma rays to induce high-frequency genetic variations, screen the plants under simulated climate-stressed conditions, and return the most promising seed lines to local farmers for open field testing and regional adaptation.
The joint centre is deploying advanced biotechnical protocols to resolve acute shortages of high-quality planting materials.
Implementing rapid in-vitro multiplication systems, the laboratory can compress the time required to mass-produce healthy, uniform seedlings from years to just a few weeks.
Mr Amin cited banana, cassava, coffee, and dryland cereals as primary examples of crops benefiting from this rapid-scaling technology.
The IAEA has successfully co-developed and distributed over 3,500 improved crop varieties across 78 countries, pairing every technology transfer with fully funded training blueprints for local African researchers and lab technicians.
Source: Access Agric
Image Credit: Ghana News Agency
