Two students of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT) have developed a cocoa disease detection machine, an invention that is likely to give a boost to cocoa production in the country.
Developed by Ami De-Quist Sosu and Asiedu Brempon, both level 400 students, the machine was adjudged the best technology at the 5th Innovation and Career Fair of UMaT in Tarkwa in the Western Region.
It uses digital image processing to detect cocoa diseases on farms, something that will be a welcoming news for cocoa farmers in the country.
The developers received 5,000 cedis, a certificate and a plague as their prize package for being the overall best at the fair that attracted researchers, engineers, consultants and service providers as well as business people.
Ms Sosu who is the leader of the team told 3news.com that their vision is to produce other modules for other crops should government come to their aid.
“We wish to take up other crops like maize, millet and others and [we] pray government will take it up to support our farmers” she said.
She however said the only challenged for them will be data gathering to produce a reliable module.
The Vice Chancellor of UMaT, Professor Jerry Samuel Kumah stated Ghana needs young people who will think outside the box and become risk takers, creators and builders.
He said such ambitious people ought to put themselves on the line to build real firms that will add value and created real jobs.
MP for Assin South, Reverend John Ntim Fordjour urged tertiary students to seek solutions to the numerous societal problems by putting their ideas into practice.
This, he said, will also make them entrepreneurs and thus contribute to the reduction of the unemployment in the country.
He donated 20 street lights and 10 laptops to the University which is also his alma mater, to support an incubator project the university is currently undertaking.
The fair was aimed at offering the students the opportunity to showcase their innovations and demonstrate how they can be used to address some of the challenges confronting the country.
A technology that is able to reduce deforestation and another one which uses drone to detect people trapped in fire disasters were also exhibited at the fair.
By Benjamin Peters & Ebenezer Abakah|3news.com|Ghana