The University of Ghana (UG) has reached a historic milestone with the promotion of Professor Daniel Adu Ankrah from the rank of Associate Professor to the rank of Professor.
It makes him the first and youngest Professor in Agricultural Extension since the Department of Agricultural Extension was established nearly 50 years ago in 1976.
Prof. Ankrah, the current Head of Department, has risen through the academic ranks with speed, completing the journey from Lecturer to Professor in just nine years—one of the fastest trajectories in the University’s history.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Prof. Ankrah said his love for Agriculture was not merely an academic choice, but a passion which was evident in his childhood formative years, where he showed a strong interest in gardening from St. Monica Preparatory School, North Kaneshie and Prince of Peace International School, Bubiashie, North Kaneshie.
Prof. Ankrah was among the few who transitioned seamlessly from Benkum Senior High School in 1998 to the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in 2000 fueled by determination.
By 2004, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) honours degree in Agriculture, seasoned, refined, and ready.
His national service at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)- Animal Research Institute (ARI), Accra, and his role as an Agronomist under the President’s Special Initiative (PSI) on Oil Palm in Kade gave him his first taste of how science transforms real lives.
“But Prof. Ankrah was never one to stop at the finish line, because to him, every achievement was a doorway to another horizon. In 2006, he chose that next horizon: at Ghana’s premier university, the University of Ghana, where he pursued an MPhil in Agricultural Administration, completing in 2008. Soon after, he became a Principal Research Assistant (PRA) at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER)- UG, contributing to the evaluation of the high-profile Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) programme, a role reserved for only the finest minds.”
Prof. Ankrah remembers his late father, Mr. Emmanuel Odame Ankrah, his mother, who is currently alive, Madam Theresa Akyea and brother, Dr. Emmanuel Ankrah Odame, always urging him to continue with further studies.
Inspired by this, in 2010, Prof. Ankrah crossed continents to the United Kingdom (UK) to pursue a PhD in International Rural Development at the University of Reading, a top-class university that ranks top in Agriculture in the UK and among the top 1% university in the world. By day, he devoted himself to world-class research; by night, he worked as a social care professional supporting children with learning disabilities, proving that brilliance means little without humanity and empathy.
During his studies in the UK, he combined leadership with studies, where he served as President of Post-Graduate Students.
His PhD research carried him to Turkey, Canada, France and the United States of America (USA), placing his voice and ideas on global platforms, an early sign of the scholar he was destined to become. And he earned his PhD at only 34 years, a milestone fewer have the courage or discipline to attempt.
After a brief professional experience in the UK, Prof. Ankrah returned home in 2015 not because he had to, but because he believed Ghana deserved the very best of him and needed him most relative to the UK.
In September, 2016, he joined the Department of Agricultural Extension at the University of Ghana as a Lecturer at the age of 35. Prof. Ankrah’s joining the Department of Agricultural Extension was facilitated by Prof. Seth Dankyi Boateng, Prof. Fred Mawunyo Dzanku and Dr. Cynthia Gadegbeku.
Within 5 years by dint of hard work and the determination that has always defined Prof. Ankrah, he rose to the rank of Senior Lecturer at age 40 in September, 2021, and by August 2022, he became Head of Department (HoD), the youngest HoD within the School of Agriculture, leading colleagues and senior academics with humility, excellence and the courage to innovate. A position that he has held until now.
By combining the heavy administrative role of HoD with teaching, research and outreach, Prof. Ankrah rose to the rank of Associate Professor in September 2023 at age 42 and finally to Professor in November, 2025, using approximately two (2) years each to rise from Senior Lecturer to Associate Professor and from Associate Professor to Professor.
“Overall, Prof. Ankrah completes his entire academic career in 9 years, one of the fastest completion rates in an academic journey at the University of Ghana”.
He provides evidence to challenge the conventional wisdom that upholds the view that Professorship is reserved for the old with grey hair. Indeed, the average age for most scholars in the School of Agriculture, UG, in attaining the feat of Professorship goes beyond 50 years.
Prof. Ankrah’s record in research shows publication of research articles in journals with high impact factors and repute. Prof. Ankrah is highly visible in credible databases such as Scopus and Web of Science.
The evidence in Scopus shows that he started publishing in Scopus outlets in 2020, and between 2020 till present, he has published 48 journal articles, implying publishing on average 8 papers per year, making him a highly prolific writer. He currently has an H-index of 15 in Scopus with more than 1,000 citations in Google Scholar.
He has published in reputable journals such as the Journal of Peasant Studies (Taylor & Francis), Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension (Taylor & Francis), Land Use Policy (Elsevier), Journal of International Development (Wiley), Review of Development Economics (Wiley), and Natural Resources Forum (Wiley), among others.
Prof. Ankrah profoundly remembers his colleague Dr. Nana Afranaa Kwapong, who facilitated the publishing of their first paper in a Scopus-indexed journal. And particularly to Prof. Dzodzi Tsikata, who offered Prof. Ankrah the opportunity to work on a six-year research project known as Demeter that yielded publications of research articles in high-impact-factor journal outlets.
He is additionally grateful to colleagues who strategically inspired him in joint research publications, notably Prof. Bright Owusu Asante of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Mr. Solomon Akutinga, KNUST, Mr. Stephen Prah, Department of Agribusiness, Applied Economics and Agriscience Education, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, Prof. Robert Ugochukwu Onyeneke, Alex Ekwueme, Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Nigeria, Dr. Ifeoma Quinette Anugwa, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Elvis Kwame Ofori, Department of Plants and Agribioscience, University of Galway, Ireland, Dr. Edward Martey, Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) among others.
Beyond teaching and research, Prof. Ankrah has shaped the agricultural and rural development landscape through consultancy roles with the World Bank, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), AGRA, USAID, the European Union (EU), DANIDA, and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA).
At the University of Ghana, Daniel has engaged in top-class research projects where he, together with colleagues, has mobilised total grants with a nominal value of US$16,384,137 (US$16 million) with a UG component of US$1,977,170.54 towards research, graduate and post-doctoral training.
Prof. Ankrah has widely disseminated his research on global platforms in Ethiopia, the United Kingdom (UK), Belgium, Thailand, Beijing, China and the Netherlands. Prof. Ankrah is currently working as a Principal Investigator (PI) together with Prof. Akosua Darkwah on a four-year interdisciplinary, multi-country and innovative Observatory for Research and Practice on Food Systems and Social Reproduction with a total grant value of £412,105 British pounds Sterling.
The initiative aims to contribute to the just transition and leaving no one behind agenda in global food systems1-3 by i) providing action-oriented research on the inequities and injustices currently embedded in the way food is produced, distributed and consumed; ii) helping to design policies and interventions to increase food systems resilience to socio-economic and environmental shocks.
This research project is led by Dr. Fiorella Picchioni of the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom (UK), together with other partners – University College of London (UCL), the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), South Africa and the University of Ghana. See more on https://obsfssr.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/about/.
Prof. Ankrah is a collaborator on a three-year research project known as the Policy Prioritisation through Value Chain Analysis (PPVC II) led in Ghana by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana, Legon, by Dr Andrew Agyei-Holmes.
The project has a total budget line of US$300,000. The PPVC II is a Bill and Melinda Gates (BMGF) funded project that seeks to provide technical and analytical tools that are used to analyse agricultural commodity sectors for the purposes of supporting evidence-based decision making.
The project started in 2024 and will end in 2026. The technical team consists of ISSER, the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and the Modelling Services Centre (MSC) of the African Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ANAPRI).
The PPVC Methodology is a complementary set of tools that includes partial equilibrium (PE) models, computable general equilibrium (CGE) models, value chain analysis, as well as geographic information systems (GIS) to unpack and analyse commodity sectors and determine the return on per Cedi of individual sets of policy interventions and investments.
It is a framework that is critical in evaluating the specific impacts of government policies on value chains and the broader economy.
So far, the research team is assisting the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) on investment and returns in three value chains – poultry, maize and rice by providing rigorous evidence to inform and guide policy decisions in Ghana, particularly governments flagship programme i.e. the Feed Ghana Programme (FGP).
Prof. Ankrah has recently led and successfully won a 6 million European Union (EU) project grant known as Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) for Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA) – AKIS4FNSSA with a UG component of €215,375 Euro.
This is made up of 17 member partners forming a consortium drawn from Europe and Africa, led by Wageningen University and Research (WUR), in the Netherlands. From the University of Ghana, Prof. Ankrah leads this project spearheaded by the Department of Agricultural Extension together with Dr. (Mrs) Comfort Freeman and Dr. Danley Colecraft Aidoo.
The AKIS4FNSSA represents a transition towards more resilient, sustainable, and climate-proof agrifood systems through research and innovation (R&I) to champion the partnership between the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU).
Among AU and EU agrifood policymakers and R&I actors, there is a rising interest in understanding how the adoption of agroecology can foster this mission and contribute to livelihoods and food security in the long run.
Beyond an agronomic principle, agroecology is a paradigm for tailoring agrifood systems to the conditions of the soil, the culture and the diversity of knowledge.
Mobilising such insight into the strategies of the R&I partnerships, including those supported by the International Research Consortium (IRC) under the Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA) Partnership, is pertinent.
A well-functioning Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) is crucial for achieving Africa’s missions on agroecology and climate resilience, and for supporting knowledge flows across sectors, value chains, countries and regions.
Whereas many past efforts to develop AKIS in Africa focused on bilateral funding mechanisms, temporary research consortia, or isolated innovation pilots, AKIS4FNSSA recognises and addresses three pertinent challenges in current AKIS i.e. Mission-oriented framing (MoAKIS), Multi-level governance integration, and finally advancing projects to an institutionalised interface between science, policy and society.
This project is set to commence in September 2026 for a four-year period, which will see the training of master’s and PhD Students.
Prof. Ankrah was thankful to Dr. Syndhia Mathe, a research scientist with CIRAD, currently hosted by the Department of Agric. Extension for playing a key role in getting the Department on board as part of the partners of the research consortium for AKIS4FNSSA.
Aside from academia, Prof. Ankrah is socially very active.
He currently serves as the President of the Men’s Ministry at the Good Shepherd Assemblies of God Church, Amrahia off the Dodowa Otinibi road, Accra, where he gives spiritual leadership.
In the same church, he is also the Music Director for the Voices of Shepherd (VoS) choir, a member of the evangelism team, and chairperson of Compassion Ministry, responsible for assessing and disbursing funds to needy members in the church.
He takes on the additional responsibility of leading the Men’s Ministry to share God’s word with orphans at the Potters Village, Dodowa, twice every month. Prof Ankrah expressed gratitude to his pastors – Rev. Derek Amoo-Sakyi and Rev. Dr. (Mrs).
Felicia Amoo-Sakyi for the opportunity to serve in the church. Prof. Ankrah is also the national president of the Benkum Senior High School Old Students’ Association – BOSA, where he provides renewed and innovative leadership. Prof. Ankrah is married to Mrs. Priscilla Kesewa Ankrah, a financial consultant with Prudential Life Insurance, Ghana, and they are blessed with three daughters.
Prof. Ankrah’s promotion marks a defining moment in the history of the Department of Agricultural Extension and the University of Ghana.
His story is a powerful testament to what happens when vision, tenacity of purpose, discipline, service, hard work and empathy come forward.
His rise to Professor is not just an aspiration; it represents a generational opportunity to push boundaries, challenge conventional wisdom, build the next chapter of excellence, and inspire every individual, student, faculty, alumnus and mentee to dream audaciously because greatness, as he has shown, is not inherited.
It is built by hard work and dedication, not excuses. In an interview with Prof. Ankrah, he indicated that his focus is on attracting research grants to train the next generation of leaders with the much-anticipated analytical and practical skills to address the problems that confront Ghana and Africa’s agri-food system.
Prof. Ankrah indicated that it is better to sacrifice to achieve your ambition than to remain in a comfort zone that makes an ambition become a mirage. Staying in a comfort zone never delivers concrete results.
He thanked the current Dean, Prof. Eric Kwesi Nartey, and the former Dean, Prof. Irene Egyir, for the opportunity to work for the School of Agriculture, UG.
He mentioned that he looks forward to inviting all friends, acquaintances and family to an inaugural lecture where he officially presents his research works and celebrates the peak of his academic journey.
