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To save the environment from the rippling effects of plumes of carbon dioxide, the Research for Development Innovation and Agriculture and Learning (ReDIAL), has produced and commissioned grains and rice thresher at Ejura Sekyedumase Municipality of the Ashanti Region.
ReDIAL is a research body dedicated to Climate-relevant Development Smart Innovation through research in agriculture (and food systems) in developing countries.
With Ejura Sekyedumase inundated with a single crop threshers powered by fossil energy, the ReDAIAL multi-crop clean energy technological breakthrough is pencilled to change the narrative.
Co-funded by the European Union (EU), the ReDIAL project, which is powered by 36,000 kilowatts of solar energy, runs on a cleaner source of energy.
In fact, it forms part of two multi-crop diesel-run multiple threshers that was supplied to Ejura Sekyedumase but redesigned to run on clean energy.
It has come to replace a diesel-run thresher, and by extension, harnessing clean energy to thresh crops as well as promote sustainable renewable energy use that is climate friendly and to further reduce the cost of operation.
The ReDIAL thresher seeks to aid the transition from fossil fuels to power threshers to a cleaner source of energy, and aims to reduce the laborious tasks associated with the fossil powered thresher and thereby expediting farmers’ quest of getting their products on the market.
The solar-powered thresher would be managed by the Post ReDIAL Management Committee, (PRMC) to ensure that beneficiaries of the project continue to benefit from the gains of the project.
Complementing the ReDIAL project at Ejura Sekyedumase, on Wednesday, was the handover of assets provided by the ReDIAL project to the PRMC with valuable assets amounting to over GH₵ 1.5 million, aiming to sustain the project in the area.
The ReDIAL Coordinator and Executive Director, Donkris Mevuta, in an address read for him said the project marked a significance in their collective efforts of sustainable agriculture and climate action.
According to Mevuta, the ReDIAL project had been instrumental in introducing innovative solutions for smallholder farmers.
He noted that the adoption of multi-crop threshers capable of handling cereals “is a shot in the arm to farmers in some regions.”
“By leveraging multi-crop threshers capable of handling maize, rice, cowpea, and soybeans, we have empowered farmers in rice farming districts in Ghana: Yendi, Sefwi-Wiawso, Donkorkrom, Techiman, including Ejura.
Advising the small holder beneficiaries, he urged the farmers to leverage the facilities to eke out a living, adding that they have to invest in additional livelihoods they had been trained on, and thereby promoting eco-friendly climate-smart farming, among others.
He also appealed with the Municipal Assembly to assist in supporting the PRMC, taking good care of the project.
On his part, the Municipal Chief Executive Officer for Ejura Sekyedumase Municipality , Dr Kingsely Osei , stated that the implements provided by ReDIAL and its partners would enhance agriculture in Ejura Sekyedumase.
He acknowledged that the climate change had made farming difficult, and urged the PRMC to take good care of the thresher equipment.
The Ashanti Regional MOFA Director, indicated that the ReDIAL solar powered gadget would help farmers in the area, and asked the farmers to take advantage of the innovation
Madam Aishetu Salifu, the head of the PRMC, assured authority of taking good care of the multi-crop thresher equipment.
FROM KINGSLEY E. HOPE, EJURA
