Seed is the lifeblood of the agricultural industry; quality seed are required for fertilizers to function properly and to appreciate its utility. Nothing can work on the soil without good seeds.
“The seed sector is the essence and foundation of any country’s agriculture production sector, which is why AGRA is particularly interested in it; it is one area that activates every aspect of the agriculture sector’s production.”
“Our opinion is that if we Ghanaians can appropriately invest in the seed sector and, by extension, help to boost the productivity of smallholder farmers, all other agricultural sectors would prosper,” Juliette Lampoh-Agroh, AGRA Ghana’s Country Director, stated.
She made the announcement during the Ghana SeedSAT Recommendations Validation Meeting in Accra. The workshop brought together stakeholders in the seed sector to better understand the state of Ghana’s seed system based on thematic areas and to determine investment priorities in the seed sector to achieve food security.
Due to numerous constraints, productivity is quite poor, and the usage of modified seeds is still very low in Ghana, particularly among smallholder farmers. Because smallholder farmers generate a large portion of Ghana’s food, when their productivity falls, it has an impact on the country’s food basket.
“AGRA has been working in this sector for many years and has had some successes,” the Country Manager said. “We have managed to increase the use of improved seeds by smallholder farmers from around 11 per cent to 30 per cent, but we still need to ensure that smallholder farmers have access to enough quality seeds at the right time to improve productivity and develop agriculture in Ghana.”
She reaffirmed AGRA’s commitment to continue working with smallholder farmers by teaching them on the need of using better seeds to increase productivity and alleviate the country’s food security problems.
Dr George Bigirwa, Vice President for PID – Technical, urged farmers to take advantage of the better seeds that are currently available.
He stated that seed companies have launched seed variants, and farmers should choose the best seed varieties to ensure a decent output.
Patronizing local improved seed types by farmers, he claims, will place the government in a better position to ban seed imports and food importation in favour of local production.
Dr Paul Siameh, the Extension Director at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, told Agric Today that the directorate will do everything possible to ensure proper information dissemination on the use of good improved seeds to the farmers while working with smallholder farmers to ensure good agriculture practices to improve food production.
“We will do all necessary to assure correct information through programs like the Ghana Extension System Strengthen Projects, where we assisted numerous farming communities with improved seeds, conducted demonstrations, and followed up with field days,” stated Dr Paul Siameh.
Farmers’ seed patronage has improved as a result of the Planting for Food and Jobs program. The government provides subsidized improved seeds to farmers as one of the program’s major aspects.
The Director reaffirmed the directorate’s commitment to assisting farmers in the realm of production in adopting appropriate agricultural practices in order to create high-quality, nutritious food for the country.