YPARD GHANA representative Mr. Michael Kwabena Osei is a product of T.I. Ahamadiyya Senior Secondary High School, Kumasi. He is a Research Scientist of the CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Kumasi, Ghana. He holds a BSc. (Agriculture) and MSc. (Plant Breeding) from the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (KNUST) respectively. He also holds a Diploma in Vegetable breeding and Certificate in Plant Variety Protection/Plant Breeders’ Right from the AVRDC- World Vegetable Center, Arusha-Tanzania and Wageningen, The Netherlands respectively. He has also participated in a number of other professional or short training courses and workshops in Online e-resources on the PROTAbase Programme (South Africa), Science and Technology- Europe Africa Project (ST-EAP) Training (Kenya), 2nd Marker Assisted Selection Training (Legon, Ghana) among the rest. Michael is the first Ghanaian scientist to have reported the discovery of three new distinct tomato virus strains associated with Tomato Yellow Leaf curl Virus (TYLCV) disease in Ghana. This outstanding discovery has been published in the American Plant Disease Journal. His research activities also include using IPM technology together with breeding techniques to mitigate tomato viruses in tomato growing areas in Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Upper East regions of Ghana where farmers have ignorantly been using pesticides but to no avail. Others include rotational cropping of tomato with cassava, cocoyam and plantain and tomato evaluation for selection to adaptability to climate change in Ghana. He has published and presented papers on a wide range of vegetables including tomato, garden eggs and African Indigenous leafy vegetables. Mr.Osei has attended several international conferences in the USA, Kenya, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso and serves on several CSIR-CRI committees. He is currently the secretary of CSIR-Northern sector Research Staff Association. He is an award winner of CTA in a young scientist competition for sub Saharan African held in 2010 during the FARA general Assembly in Burkina Faso. He was also awarded a bronze (cash prize_$3500, laptop & citation) as the national best young scientist during the 1st Ghana science congress in August 2011.
If you want to get involved with YPARD Ghana team, please contact me at ypardghana@gmail.com .