India-Ghana MoU Links ICAR With Crops Research Institute

The correct answer is the Crops Research Institute (CSIR-CRI), Accra. It signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, covering joint agricultural research, scientific and technological exchange, capacity building and the application and commercialisation of farm technologies, and the signing was attended by the external affairs ministers of both countries. Option B is wrong because no university was named as the signing body in the announcement. Option C is wrong as well: the cocoa sector was not the subject of the pact, whose opening focus is on vegetable crops and in particular tomato, followed by cassava, yam and other tuber crops. Option D is wrong because a standards body has no role in the arrangement described. Note also that Arima Farms Ltd. of Ghana was recognised as the commercial partner to the signing institute for specific research and commercialisation activities, and that a Joint Working Group drawn from both institutions will review progress.

The correct answer is five years. The understanding between the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Crops Research Institute of Ghana provides a framework of this duration for joint agricultural research, exchange of science and technology, capacity building, and the application and commercialisation of agricultural technologies. Options A, C and D state other periods and do not match the term announced. Several related details are worth fixing in memory alongside the duration. The first phase of work concentrates on vegetable crop research, with tomato research and development singled out, and India is to support the scaling up of proven technologies and the introduction of high-yielding tomato lines so that Ghana can strengthen domestic production. Cooperation then extends to processing and value addition for cassava, yam and other tuber crops, and to post-harvest management covering cold storage, refrigerated transportation, sorting, grading and processing technologies. The partnership is framed as part of South-South and India-Africa cooperation.

The correct answer is a Joint Working Group of the two institutes. It will be made up of representatives of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Crops Research Institute, will review the progress of cooperation and will guide implementation, meeting periodically in New Delhi and in Accra. Option B is wrong because no continental organisation was given this role in the arrangement. Option C is wrong as well: no panel of a United Nations agency was named in the oversight mechanism described. Option D is wrong because, although the external affairs ministers of India and Ghana graced the signing ceremony, the ministry was not made the monitoring body for the work programme. The understanding also provides for exchange of scientists and technologists, germplasm and breeding materials, scientific information, methodologies and technical knowledge, and for institutional linkages between relevant research institutes and centres of the two countries so that scientific cooperation continues beyond single projects.