Crop Research Institute (CRI)-Kumasi

The CSIR-Crops Research Institute (CRI) is Ghana’s premier agricultural research institution and the largest of the 13 institutes under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. The CRI is a national center of excellence dedicated to ensuring food security through the development of high-yielding, climate-smart, and disease-resistant crop varieties. In February 2026, the institute entered a new phase of strategic governance with the appointment of Dr. Daniel Fahene Acquaye as Chairman of the Management Board, working alongside the Director, Professor Maxwell Darko Asante. The institute's mandate covers a vast array of food and industrial crops, including cereals (maize, rice), legumes (cowpea, soybean), roots and tubers (cassava, yam), and horticultural products. Recent 2026 breakthroughs include the large-scale promotion of the Toondana soybean,a drought-tolerant variety yielding up to 3.5 tonnes per hectare—and the launch of the third phase of the KAFACI Tomato Project, which focuses on breeding heat-tolerant tomatoes to combat climate stress in West Africa.