Ghana’s forest cover could soon see a major boost after the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources commissioned a Teak Tissue Culture Workshop in the Atwima Nwabiagya District of the Ashanti Region.
The state-of-the-art facility provides technologies that are viable alternatives to conventional vegetative propagation to produce 100,000 thousand to one million shoots in a single year.
Unlike the traditional method of planting saplings to restore the forest landscape, the new facility will make seedlings easily accessible for replanting on degraded land in the country.
From 2017 to 2023, a total of 728,608 hectares of degraded land has been rehabilitated in Ghana.
These lands have been ravaged by illegal mining, illegal logging, fires and illegal felling of trees.
Star Agro Forestry Limited is one of the beneficiary private sector companies, which has been allocated degraded forest reserves to undertake commercial forest plantation development.
The company has been allocated over 1,500 hectares of degraded forest land in the Offin Shelterbelt Forest Reserve in the Nkawie Forest Region to undertake the development of commercial forest plantations.
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The Histological Culture Laboratory has been established to ensure that the company can produce high quality genetically superior tree seedlings for their planting operations and to meet the objectives of reforesting degraded lands.
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The Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Benito Owusu-Bio, who spoke on the topic “Public Private Sector Involvement in Forest Landscape Restoration in Ghana”, said the new technology is a game changer.
“This facility is a game changer for our agroforestry production business. This is a commercial facility that will ensure we have good seedlings to plant in our restoration efforts.
“Restoration initiatives have brought many benefits to our country, including job creation, improved rural livelihoods, enhanced food security, protection of our watersheds and support for national and global efforts to address climate change,” he said.
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Forestry Commission Chief Executive John Allotey says the facility will produce native species to speed up land restoration.
“They can increase their production to half a million in 6 months and will work on native and exotic species, not just plantations. So they will provide Wawa, Odum.
“And the plantation material will be available to all those working or investing in plantation projects and hopefully this will help reclaim degraded lands,” he said.
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Sanjay Poddar, Managing Director, Star Agro Forestry Limited, says supernormal yields are guaranteed with the new technological setup.
“Ghana had the land and the water, but only the technology was missing, unlike many developed countries. The normal growth of seedlings with the traditional method is 20 to 22 years.
“With the tissue culture technology and the better base on the base, we are looking at a growth or maturity period of 7 to 9 years and the yield will be longer,” he said.
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The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has committed a $7 million credit facility from the World Bank under the Ghana Forestry Investment Program (GFIP) for disbursement as a soft loan facility to small and medium-scale private commercial forest plantations in Ghana.
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