Plant Resources of Tropical Africa

Need to diversify crop research in Ghana universities

 

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A new study by PROTA has revealed that agricultural students in Ghana are concentrating on researching on a few well known, widely used and widely researched crops neglecting other equally important crops. This has led to recycling of research topics, raising concern over the capacity of these research projects generating any new knowledge.

The aim of study was to determine research priorities in faculties of agriculture at three Ghanaian universities, with regards to research intensity on commodity groups, major research crops, subject matter, nomenclatural problems and active sites for student research between 1980 and 2005.

The study involved scanning more than 1500 student theses submitted to the faculties of agriculture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Cape Coast (UCC) and the University of Ghana (UG), Legon. Of the 1534 thesis analysed, KNUST accounted for 543 theses, UCC 659 and UG 332.

Over 90 % of students’ research during this period focused on crops used for cereals and pulses, carbohydrates and vegetables. Hardly surprising, given that these crops provide for over 95 % dietary, energy, protein and macronutrients for most households in Ghana. An analysis across the three commodity groups shows that cassava (Manihot esculenta)is the most researched crop, followed by maize (Zea mays), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) and sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas)

 

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Of the 275 vegetables species reviewed in the handbook, PROTA 2: Vegetables, about 170 were indigenous to West Africa and many are adaptable to cultivation in the range of conditions in Ghana. Yet analysis revealed that the top five vegetable crops studied by graduate students are tomato, okra (Abelmoschus esculentus), onions (Allium cepa), garden pea (Pisum sativum) and cabbage (Brassica oleracea). Despite the potential benefits of growing indigenous vegetable crops, local research on these species has been lacking.

A similar trend was revealed among cereal and pulse crops. Maize was the most frequently studied crop among agriculture students in Ghana, followed by cowpea, soybean (Glycine max), groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) and rice (Oryza sativa). The top five carbohydrate sources studied were cassava, sweet potato, plantain (Musa sp.), yam (Dioscorea spp.) and cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta). Valuable student research efforts could be directed towards understanding the cultivation of indigenous, lesser-known crop species with significant potential for improving dietary diversity, food security and nutrition in Ghana.

The study also highlighted some problem areas for students, such as botanical nomenclature. Lack of citation and incorrect abbreviations of authors’ names, use of trinomials, incorrect spellings of scientific names, and the use of synonyms when scientific names had long since been replaced were not uncommon among the theses surveyed.

Duplication and plagiarism were evident in project titles and thesis content within and between universities. For instance, a faculty received theses on almost-identical topics in the same year: one student submitted a thesis entitled “The efficacy of lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) and citronella (Cymbopogon nardus) in the management of nematodes of carrots”.  Another student submitted “The use of citronella (Cymbopogon nardus) and lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus) in the control of nematode in carrot ”

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The predominance of on-station research since 1980 was a positive indication that university facilities are equipped for field experiments that could be used for research on underutilised crops with valuable development potential.

The analysis is expected to assist universities to extend student research to include the underutilised species with high potential for addressing nutritional deficiencies, hunger and poverty in Africa. Following on from other PROTA publications, the analysis will encourage universities to set better research agenda, identify research gaps and theses subjects, and agree upon research niches to avoid duplication.

The main objective of the PROTA programme is to improve access to interdisciplinary data on the about 8,000 useful plants of tropical Africa, especially the underutilised species that are currently receiving little attention from researchers worldwide.