The Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-CRI), has launched a new five-year strategic plan to commercialize research products. 

The Institute will engage industry and market innovations to end users to encourage patronage of CSIR technologies.

The goal is to accelerate socio-economic development through agricultural research innovation and technology transfer.

The five-year strategic plan of the CSIR will be implemented from 2023 to 2027. 

The plan will foster greater collaboration among the 13 institutes under the CSIR, while building capacity for sustainable food and industrial crop productivity.

The five priority areas include interpreted agriculture research for development, communication, financial sustainability, human and infrastructure capacity development, and system and management procedures. 

Management Board Chair of CSIR, Dr Foster Boateng, indicated that the government and other stakeholders hold vital roles in the implementation of the plan.  

“The strategy is workable but it's just the beginning. But we need to put all our shoulders on the wheel to make sure that we implement it successfully. Farmers need the required materials that command genetic advantage so that we become competitive. Therefore, as a government, we need to make a conscious effort to put money into it to commercialize what they [researchers] produce or what they [the researchers] churn out. It also takes the private sector to take it to scale: strengthening the various institutions and the roles that they have to play. 

“We need to change to the bottom gear. And if all the units are working together and everybody is playing its role, then we'll have a functional institution that systems are running. Research is the wheels and gears that should drive agricultural transformation. For me, as a country, we have to be intentional to put our money where our mouths are,” he said. 

Director of CSIR-CRI, Professor Moses Brandford Mochiah, said the strategic plan implementation committee will ensure a successful outcome. 

“We invite private people who will come and we give them the license to use our products. We work with MOFA, but this time around we go far ahead of that and make sure that other private enterprises come in so they take it up and market it. 

“All the staff have to wake up and help us with the implementation. So that is why we have adopted a new implementation committee. So with this, I am not envisaging any problems at all. The committee members are well-resourced and they know what it entails. So they will go out and preach the good gospel about the plan,” he said. 

Dr Maxwell Asante, Deputy Director of CSIR-Crop Research Institute, who chairs the implementation committee, added that every head of division will subdivide this strategic plan into various activities and outputs, and every division will be giving clear activities with corresponding outputs for the year.

"We will break everything down, and then the other aspect which is very important is communication. We have to carry everybody along from the last person in the field to the director, so now that this strategic plan has been launched we will go back to our people and bring everybody on board”.