Agriculture students visit research station

KPONG, FEB 12, GNA - Students from the Faculty of Engineering Sciences of the University of Ghana Legon, paid a day's familiarisation tour to the University of Ghana's Agricultural Research Station in Kpong. The students were welcomed by the Senior Research Officer In-Charge of the station, Dr. Ken Nyamelegbe. He told the visiting students that the station covered 1,240 hectares of land and researches into beef- cattle, rice, maize and cowpea etc.

An expert in soil and water management, Dr. Macarius Yangyuoru took the engineering students to a newly created Rainwater Harvesting Dam which was built out of clay-core and quarry chips. This dam, he said, was being used for the cultivation of maize, rice and vegetables throughout the year and has a life span of one hundred years.

According to Dr. Yangyuoru, the dam was built in such a way that it would be able to gradually desilt soil deposits that may accumulate in the dam. The value of the dam was estimated at four billion cedis. The students were taken through demonstrations of a rice miller, a multi-purpose thresher for rice, cowpea and maize.

The students also inspected the water intake unit of the station and observed how a submersible pump was used with the help of electricity, drawing water from the Volta River into its reservoirs and how irrigation was practised on the station.

The students are the first batch of the engineering science students admitted this academic year to pursue courses in Computer Engineering, Food Processing Engineering, Agricultural Engineering, Material Science Engineering and Biomedical Engineering.