The Crops Research Institute (CRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has hinted honouring the memory of Mr Kofi Annan, by naming one of its ten newly-researched potato varieties after him.

Dr. Ernest Baafi, a researcher at CRI and leader for the breeding team said the decision was to immortalise the great leader for the advocacy role he played to champion the wide and high consumption of the nutrient-dense root and tuber crop to help boost the nutritional needs of the Ghanaian populace.

He told the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of a field inspection tour to brief the media on the new ten varieties proposed for release, at Fumesua in the Ejisu Municipality.

Dr Baafi said Mr Annan’s pivotal role also as the founding Chair of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the funding Agency for the research, needed to be lauded to the skies to honour him, though posthumously, as his mortal remains in state.

He said all ten varieties in a unique nomenclature would be prefaced with CRI, to denote the name of the research institution and then the other names would follow.

Six of them, he said would take the name of AGRA, while the remaining three would also be named after both local and foreign lead researchers including a white lady.

Dr. Stella Ennin, the Director of CRI, indicated that the root, tuber crop early maturation period of 4-5 months, coupled with high nutritional contents, could contribute to making food available at all times within the year and also resolve the nutritional needs of children adults and especially pregnant and lactating mothers.

These proposed on-sweet varieties, she noted, coming with interesting characteristics – high vitamin A and less water could be fried, boiled or pounded into  fufu, all local staples, calling on the public to accept its use.

Source: GNA