Patricia Amankwaa-Yeboah

CSIR-Crops Research Institute · Agricultural Engineering and Transport

ABSTRACT Different agricultural technologies such as irrigation are promoted to increase or stabilize yields and increase the incomes and consequently reduce poverty among the farming households. Irrigation is critical to attain the food security and other national agricultural development objectives such as the first three water-related Sustainab...

Water availability for irrigation farming is one of the greatest challenges associated with the increasing spatio-temporal effects of climate change and variability on tomato production, especially in tropical regions. This study was conducted to demonstrate the combined effect of irrigation and nutrient management as a water-saving strategy to max...

With increasing global population, the gap between the supply and demand for water is widening and poses a threat to human existence. In the face of water scarcity, urban wastewater is increasing in its attention as an alternate water source for crop production. However, several challenges such as toxicity hazards, salinity build-up and health conc...

Different genotypes of Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc) grow well under conducive environmental conditions, provided that adequate soil moisture is available during vegetative and reproductive phases. However, drought stress is the major limiting factor to bambara production, which accounts for up to 40% of yield losses. This situatio...

The global temperature increase of 1.1°C over the past decade and human population growth are already escalating competition for water in locations where water is scarce, adversely affecting agriculture. Water-smart farming was developed to address challenges associated with the availability, access and use of agricultural water. It complements pra...

The global temperature increase of 1.1°C over the past decade and human population growth are already escalating competition for water in locations where water is scarce, adversely affecting agriculture. Water-smart farming was developed to address challenges associated with the availability, access and use of agricultural water. It complements pra...

Issues of food insufficiency among smallholder cocoa farming households persist due to low attention paid to food crops production. Employing multivariate probit technique on cross sectional data collected from cocoa farmers in Ghana, the study assessed dynamics in acceptance of four complementary agricultural technologies including improved variet...

Complex controls and non-linear responses of the climate system to global warming make it difficult to have clear-cut predictions of future precipitation amounts and timelines. It is, however, evident from current observations that some predictions of unusually high rates of flooding and droughts are occurring and threatening food security in sub-S...

The objectives of this study were to assess food security possibilities among cocoa farmers and provide feedback information as concerning food security status of these farmers. This would contribute to literature on farm household food security situation in Ghana. We used food consumption score(FCS) which is a composite score based on dietary dive...

A field trial was conducted to determine the effects of different water conservation practices done in-situ on soil water content, stomatal conductance, and seed yield of common beans at Fumesua experimental station of the CSIR-Crops Research Institute in Ghana during the 2020 and 2021 cropping seasons. The water conservation practices implemented...

Aims: This study was conducted to enhance the tolerance of common beans to drought events occurring at the reproductive stage, from a soil improvement perspective. Study Design: Split plot completely randomized design was used. Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted in a screen-house at the Legumes and Oil Seeds Division of CSIR-Crops Res...

The use of rhizobia and phosphorus solubilizing bacteria (PSB) as an alternative source to improve soil nutrition is necessary to promote sustainable gram production. In this study, the efficacy of rhizobia (Bradyrhizobium japonicum- BR3267) and PSB (Pseudomonas striata) in liquid form and on carrier material was investigated in a Randomized Comple...

Plant parasitic nematodes are important pests in crop production in sub-Saharan Africa. The objective of this study was to identify the occurrence of nematodes associated with common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and evaluate breeding lines for their reaction to Meloidogyne spp. in Ghana. Common bean rhizosphere soil was sampled and processed using...

Yam production along the West African yam belt is challenged with deteriorating soil fertility and unavailability of stakes, resulting in decreased yam productivity, and farmers' livelihood. This study evaluated resource use and yam productivity in pigeonpea-yam cropping systems in Ghana's forest and forest-savannah transition zones from 2017 throu...

The issue of food security has gained global significance in both political and social discourse due to a projected worldwide population increase by 2050. A major hindrance to achieving food security is the negative effects of insect pests. Insect pests competes with humans at the highest level for agricultural resources and it is estimated that th...

Climate change and its associated variabilities is having major impacts on agricultural production across the globe. Sustainable production options that reduce the vulnerability of the food system to climate change impacts are being advocated for, with a lot of ongoing research in that direction. Aeroponics production, a soilless production system...

Agricultural productivity is important for food security and income generation among other benefits. In tropical Africa, agricultural productivity is generally perceived as low. This low productivity can be increased through means such as crop improvement, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, agroforestry, moderniza...

Africa risk achieving its food security target due to the predominance of open field rain-fed production systems, worsening climate change impacts, environmentally unsustainable agronomic practices and low productivity. Large scale adoption of new and clean production technologies can overcome these challenges and increase productivity in an enviro...

Foliar application of fertilizers can guarantee nutrient availability to beans, leading to higher yield and seed quality. Different approaches including glycine have been used to improve mineral nutrient status of plants toward safer products and improved human health. However, limited research has been undertaken to understand the response of bean...

Ghana’s agricultural economy is largely dominated by the crop subsector with much focus on the production of tree, arable and vegetable crops. Nevertheless, Phytophthora spp. are major threat to the production of these crops contributing significantly to yield reduction. In this review, the main focus will be to look at the threats the pathogen pos...

There is an urgent need to match food production with increasing world population through identification of sustainable land management strategies. However, the struggle to achieve food security should be carried out keeping in mind the soil where the crops are grown and the environment in which the living things survive, especially under rainfed a...

Background Soil application of biochar and straw alone or their combinations with nitrogen (N) fertilizer are becoming increasingly common, but little is known about their agronomic and environmental performance in semiarid environments. This study was conducted to investigate the effect(s) of these amendments on soil properties, nitrous oxide (N2O...

The study evaluated DSSAT's CERES-Maize and CROPGRO models for their effectiveness in simulating the growth of maize, groundnut, and cowpea under dynamic nutrient amendments and water management practices in field experiments. The experiments were laid-out in split-plot with water management (rainfed and irrigated) as main plots and fertilizer (org...

Maize (Zea mays L.) production is constrained in Ghana by declining soil fertility, erratic rainfall and the recent fall armyworm invasion. We hypothesised that adopting push-pull farming practices would reduce infestation and damage of maize by fall armyworm, while increasing maize yield. We conducted field experiments at two sites over two croppi...

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of biochar, straw and N fertilizer on soil properties, soil respiration and grain yield of spring wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) in semi-arid Western Loess Plateau of northwestern China. The two carbon sources (straw and biochar) were applied alone or combined with nitrogen fertilizer (urea, 46% nit...

Water and nutrients shortage threatens agricultural sustainability in many arid and semiarid areas of the world. It is unknown whether improved water and nutrient conservation practices can be developed to alleviate this issue while increasing crop productivity. In this study, experimental work included the application of straw, biochar and N ferti...

Modelling and multiple linear regression were used to explore the reason for low maize yield in the Atebubu-Amantin and West Mamprusi Districts of Ghana, West Africa. The study evaluated maize yields on twenty farms against measures of soil fertility, agronomic attributes and soil water availability. Correlations between yield, soil fertility, rain...

Cassava is a very important staple crop in Ghana, contributing significantly to the country's Agricultural GDP. Majority of farmers in eight out of the ten regions in Ghana cultivate the crop due to its ability to grow on marginal lands. The crop has until recently seen little improvement in their husbandry practices. Cassava yields on farmers’ fie...

Even though rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) is a major tree crop and is lucrative for small holder' farmers in Ghana, the 6 years waiting period to maturity constraints its establishment. Intercropping of rubber with food crops has been found to be a solution to this production constraint in most rubber producing countries. The objective of this s...

The detrimental health implications of chemical preservatives in fruits have necessitated exploitation of safe and natural alternatives such as edible gums. This work studied shelf-life extension in grape (Pinot noir) under cold storage by xanthan gum (XAN) coatings enriched with ascorbic acid (XANAS) and citric acid (XANCI). Standard scientific me...

The study sought to examine adoption of nutritious drought tolerant (DT) maize using social science research methods and participatory demonstration trials. The social science study used mixed method approach which combined both qualitative and quantitative methods. A split-plot demonstration trial of three improved maize varieties and a local vari...

With the aim of finding an alternative ameliorative mechanism for 2-furoylmethyl-amino acid (2-FM-AA) formation in drying technology, this work was conducted. This was achieved by drying banana with relative humidity (RH) convective hot-air dryer at 60, 70 and 80 °C under RH (10% 20% and 30%) at 2.0 m/s air velocity. The results revealed that at ev...

Improving crop water use efficiency and water productivity has long since been an area most irrigators and researchers favour. In rain fed agriculture, enhancing water use efficiency ensures that yields are maintained or increased with the available/effective rainfall. Breeding for superior and drought resistant crop varieties can contribute greatl...

Investigating the kinetics of enzyme activities and browning indexes in food are very essential in understanding the enzyme inactivation and browning pigmentation reaction during drying processing. In order to understand and predict accurately the enzyme inactivation and browning pigmentation of banana slices using Relative Humidity (RH)-convective...

To compare and understand the ameliorative effect of coating gums and predict accurately the enzymes inactivation and browning pigmentation of apple slice in cold storage condition, this study was conducted. Three gums (Acacia senegal, Xanthan, and Karaya) coating and distilled water (used as control) were applied to apple slices and stored for 21...

Ghana is characterized by six agroecological zones all of which provides various agricultural resources towards the country’s bid to becoming food secured. However, the predominantely drier savannah zones are usually affected by periodic droughts and food insecurity. The government’s intervention in reducing the impact of drought on agriculture and...

Aeroponics has been perceived as a technology crammed innovation, far out of reach of the ordinary farmer. Apart from its continuous dependency on electrical power, the technology comes with very sophisticated inputs such as solenoid valves, timers, misters, CO2 tanks, and air and water pumps. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the op...

Farmers heavily rely on inorganic sources of fertilizers to replenish their farmlands, which in turn increase production and management cost further with subsidies removal. The cost and environmental implications of these inorganic fertilizers on farmlands calls for innovative technologies for alternate options to sustain soil fertility. The goal f...

Yam is one of the most important dietary sources of energy for households in West-Africa. Yam stores relatively longer than most root crops and this attribute have gained it recognition as a food security crop in Ghana. More effort has been put into its research and production as has been seen by numerous government interventions over the years. Ho...

Yam is a highly economic crop for the smallholder farmer. Ghana is the lead exporter of yam making it a high value commercial root and tuber crop. However, farmers only achieve just about half of the potential yield of 22t/ha. Production largely depends on availability of quality seed, soil fertility and rainfall. Information on how to improve prod...

Aeroponics has been perceived as a technology crammed innovation, far out of reach to the ordinary farmer. Apart from its continuous dependency on electrical power, the technology comes with very sophisticated inputs such as solenoid valves, timers, misters, CO2 tanks, and air and water pumps. To maintain the ideal nutrient concentrations, thermome...

This paper presents a comparative evaluation of maize and cowpea grain yields of 24 farmers in the Forest-Savannah Transition (Atebubu-Amantin) and Guinea Savannah (West-Mamprusi) zones of Ghana for 2012 and 2014 respectively at the inception and completion of the sustainable intensification of crop-livestock integration project. While only 7 and 2...

A 2-year field experiment was conducted in 2012 and 2013 at the research fields of CSIR-Crops Research Institute to determine the best agronomic practices for the field establishment and cultivation of Chia (Salvia hispanica) and determine insect pests and diseases associated with the plant. The study also determined the nutritional composition of...

Maize is the main grain crop grown in the highlands of sub-Saharan Africa on a broad range of soil fertility and management conditions. Important yield variability has been reported at different scales reflecting the intensity and spatial distribution of growth-limiting and growth-reducing factors. Field experiments were conducted in the Forest-tra...

A 2-year field experiment was conducted in 2012 and 2013 at the research fields of CSIR-Crops Research Institute to determine the best agronomic practices for the field establishment and cultivation of Chia (Salvia hispanica) and determine insect pests and diseases associated with the plant. The study also determined the nutritional composition of...

Increased pressures on the finite water resources of the world are requiring the irrigation sector to become more accountable for its water use. There are a multitude of factors which can affect the uniformity of an irrigation system. An evaluation or performance assessment of irrigation systems can point out flaws or otherwise of an irrigation sys...

Increased pressures on the finite water resources of the world are requiring the irrigation sector to become more accountable for its water use. There are a multitude of factors which can affect the uniformity of an irrigation system. An evaluation or performance assessment of irrigation systems can point out flaws or otherwise of an irrigation sys...

Soil water and nitrate were monitored in maize crops fields in central and northern Ghana in an attempt to identify the nature of yield gaps, using a simple conceptual framework for turning water into grain (Fig.1). Essentially this framework sees water as the unifying concept in a semiarid environment and sets the maximum attainable yield in the a...

The Earth's land resources are finite, whereas the number of people that the land must support continues to grow rapidly. This creates a major problem for agriculture. Production (productivity) must be increased to meet rapidly growing demands while natural resources must be protected. New agricultural research is needed to supply information to fa...

Floral ecology and conservation of pollinators are new concerns within the environmental community which has not been explored adequately. The role of Pollinators towards achieving food security is critical function to all humanity and that full attention to it is long overdue. There is a keen interest in identifying practices that will encourage t...

As part of government's effort to meet the UN Millennium Development goal of eradicating hunger and extreme poverty by the year 2015, there has been the need to modernise agriculture in order to achieve sustainable economic growth. In Sub-Saharan Africa and Ghana for that matter, the focus gradually is being shifted to mechanised agriculture which...