Yaa Asantewaa SHS crowned champions of 2023 Ashanti Regional Renewable Energy Challenge

For the second time, the Yaa Asantewaa Senior High School (YASS), has emerged champions of the Ashanti regional 2023 renewable energy challenge, organised by the Energy Commission of Ghana.

This year's edition which was held at the Kumasi Anglican SHS, focused on how technologies can be used in agriculture to ease activities. Twenty senior high schools out of 142 schools were initially selected, where the best 10 out of the 20 made it to the finals in the region.

YASS which emerged victorious amongst the ten (10) SHS finalists in the region, based their activity on Hydroponic System of Farming; where farmers may grow crops without the use of soil.

Coming up with diverse ways of farming using technologies, Obuase Secondary Technical School was positioned second, followed by Opoku Ware Senior High School (OWASS). Other schools that respectively took the remaining positions included, Saint Jerone SHS, Sekyere- Odumase SHS, KNUST SHS, Akrofuom SHS, T.I Ahmadiyya Girls SHS etc.

Frederick King- Appiah, the Deputy Director at the Energy Commission in charge of renewable energy said this year's program aimed at improving technology in agriculture which guides farmers on how to use technology in agriculture without difficulties or stress as compared to the old system.

"It is our mandate to support energy and other specific one is on the renewable energy. This talks about how we can use natural resources such as air, sun or waste etc effectively by converting them into other useful energies. We therefore collaborate with other institutions to make sure students within the education sector understand renewable energy practically.

"We therefore raised fund and came to agreement with our partners that we institute renewable energy challenge in agriculture. This will help the students to be able to transfer theories they learn in classrooms into practicals to help the various communities. This is why we decided to do mechanised agriculture. We already know that most of our agricultural system are mechanical. But, you'll agree with me that we are in the technological world or era. So how can we use technology to solve some challenges in agriculture to ensure efficiency? This is why we came up with this idea", he explained.

According to him, the commission dreams to partner with CSIR so that they can come together to fund all winning schools so that they will be able to improve upon the technologies they used. He said the support will help make the technologies commercially viable, and this will in turn benefit the students, the teachers and the entire school.

"Even schools that do not win, we are going to be link them to a certain industry to help them develop well", he said.

For his part, the Ashanti Regional Director of Education, Dr. William Amankrah - Appiah encouraged the students and the teachers to make use of the new technology to do more to help the society.

According to him, it was worrying how students used to concentrate on theories without putting into practical use. He said with the introduction of these new technologies and deep practicals in science, he was of the firm conviction that students were going to benefit a lot.

"We want to make Science a very simple thing that can be put into practice all the time. We therefore want to encourage them to more and be able to solve the numerous societal challenges we usually encounter in the various areas", he stated.

Speaking on behalf of the winning school, YASS, Asantewaa Boakye- Yiadom said the hydroponic system if adopted by farmers, is going to help them a lot. According to her, their team chose the technology after finding out that it was going to be the best way to ease farming.

"We wanted to solve the challenge on how farmers have to struggle to weed under deep scorching sun. We want to make that a thing if the past. With the hydroponic system, you may not use huge portion of land but, you will be able to plant lots of crops even more than choosing a huge land for the old system. The most important thing is for you to get our device if you are a farmer", she said.

She added that their device which is smaller in size can be transported into a larger size by the CSIR, especially at the time the school has emerged victorious, as earlier indicated.

Meanwhile, schools that will emerge champions from the various regions are expected to meet at the Accra International Conference Center where the national overall best school is expected to be crowned.

This will be done after regional and zonal selections are made.