A community seed bank has been launched at Mangoase in the Akuapem North Municipality of the Eastern Region.

The seed bank, the first of its kind is intended to preserve orphan crop species and hard-to-find plant species and make them available to farmers in the area for commercial planting who would restock the bank with the seeds to forestall their extinction.

The pilot project is an initiative of NUS Network, an organization that promotes and safeguards neglected plant species in Ghana in partnership with Alliance Biodiversity International-CIAT and sponsored by the Netherlands Embassy.

In a welcome address, the headmaster of Mangoase Senior High School, Seth Tawiah Agbesi said "By protecting and conserving our native crop species, we can ensure that future generations would be able to enjoy the same abundance of biodiversity that we have presently".

He said the seed bank would to a large extent, help to preserve the local biodiversity which is under threat from factors such as climate change and habitat loss.

The headmaster emphasized its importance in promoting food security and sustainability with a reliable supply of seeds upon which the community would have access to a steady supply of nutritious and diverse food sources.

He said that based on the numerous benefits to be derived from the project, the school did not hesitate to provide land for the project.

In an address, the Project Coordinator, Daniel Nyadanu, a senior research scientist at the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana(CRIG)and Coordinator, of NUS Network Ghana said agricultural biodiversity provides diverse options as a strategy for cultivating and processing food products for food and nutrition security and resilience for livelihood in the face of climate change.

He said: Many orphan crops are dense in nutrients and health-promoting biological compounds adaptable to local conditions, yet we have neglected and failed to cultivate them".

NUS Network, he said would sustainably conserve local crop seeds and species in the locality which include root and tuber crops including plantains.

Dr. Nyadanu urged the Mangoase community and stakeholders in the area to own the project and work in collaboration with the school to achieve the desired goals, adding that training would be offered to individuals who would act as focal persons.

The guest speaker for the occasion, Tenniglo Inge who is also an agricultural consular at Nederlands Embassy said with the advent of the project, farmers would be able to grow and sustain neglected and under-utilized seeds.

According to her, for centuries communities have conserved, neglected and under-utilized species as part of their local food system and the chain must not be broken.

" Without these food crops and their genetic sources, we cannot have a good diet of quality nutrition and healthy life", she said.

She disclosed that there were about 400,000 food crop species available but less than half of that were being consumed.

Ghana, she said, was committed to the international treaty which has the objective of the conservation and sustainable use of plant resources for food and agriculture.

She urged the farming community and all concerned to work together to preserve the food crops for the benefit of all.

On his part, the Akuapem North Municipal Director of Agriculture, Pearl Adu-Addy said the Mangoase Community Seed Bank offers a unique opportunity to farmers in the municipality to diversify their crop production as well as providing them with access to genetically improved seeds with the requisite plant properties needed to withstand the effects of climate change.

She said the project ties in with the government's flagship programme, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) phase 2, which aims at ensuring food security and resilience by improving the availability of agricultural inputs including improved seeds.

In a closing remark, the chairperson for the occasion, Odikro Tetteh Kofi prevailed on authorities concerned to fix the deplorable road leading to the project location, a situation he said could drive away investors as long as it remains untackled.