Seed growers hold talks with MOFA

Koforidua, Jan. 24, GNA - Seed producers in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions are engaged in critical talks with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), as to how the two entities could tackle chronic constraints facing seed production, considered the most important factor for sustainable food production in the country. The depletion and contraction in arable lands globally has necessitated the use of hybrid disease resistant seeds to boost production, but unfortunately in Ghana, less than 10 percent of the required seeds are currently being produced, yet even with this measly figure, farmers still do not patronize the facility.

Its effect, the Eastern and Greater Regions Seed Growers Association (EGARSGA) claims, is responsible for the low crop yield in the country, in addition to the fact that low returns on their investment is crippling the industry.

The association points to serious repercussions for Ghana's food security drive if that sub-sector was to fall into doldrums. Mr McKeown Frimpong, President of EGARSGA, re-echoed at the beginning of the dialogue held in Koforidua on Thursday the need for government to develop a well-functioning seed policy to serve as the basis of agriculture production in the country. He said the absence of a well-laid policy had spawned a number of anomalies in the sector, thus encouraging charlatans to enter the field to the detriment of food security considerations. For instance, the Seed Producers Association of Ghana (SEEPAG) believes that 90 per cent of seeds in the system are not certified owing to the non-effectiveness of the 1972 NRCD Decree 100 in containing anomalies in that sub-sector.

Speaking to the GNA, Mr Cletus Achaab, Head of the Seed Inspection Division of MOFA, admitted that there was an urgent need for a reorganization of the sector to meet national aspirations citing moves to introduce new laws that shall help spur growth in that sector. He said a number of actions had been taken including wide consultations on the issue, which had been factored into a memo, which when approved by cabinet could be passed in to a law to help ameliorate the constraints in the sector for good.

One of the things the new law will seek to do, Mr Achaab said, would be its proviso to encourage private sector a bigger foothold in the marketing of seeds to farmers, especially in the remote areas where such facilities were needed to tackle poverty.

Expressly, the Ministry was encouraging fertilizer companies in Ghana to consider marketing certified seeds alongside their traditional products since the two must go hand in hand to achieve the required results.

Mr Achaab also appealed to District Assemblies to consider investing in seed marketing ventures as that could help reduce poverty drastically in their areas by selling seeds directly to farmers as part of the poverty alleviation schemes.

For instance, current scientific findings do indicate that with proper application of certified seeds, favorable climate and fertile soil, farmers could increase their maize acreage from the current average of eight bags per acre to nearly 18 bags for the same land size, a situation Mr Achaab said, the District Assemblies could seize to make their alleviation schemes meaningful to the people.

On the issue of lack of seed inspectors, which was identified as critical in weeding out counterfeit seeds in the sector, Mr Achaab said efforts were being made to increase the present staff strength of the Inspectorate of 20 to at least 50 so that auditing in the system could be for proactive.

EGARSGA members had pressed for serious actions to be taken on that matter as it holds the key in ensuring non-certified seeds are not sold to unsuspecting farmers to prevent wide-spread racketeering whereby some unscrupulous businessmen resort to illegally pack uncertified grains and presented them to the public as certified seeds. Contributing, Mr Francis Adzalo, Managing Director of Dela Farms, a small-scale seed growing concern, appealed to the new government to treat problems confronting the seeds sector as a national priority as it holds the key to the passage.

Mr. Godwin Ocloo, Eastern Regional Director of MOFA, who also spoke at the programme, which was organized by the Business Assistance Fund, said in response to lack of a Seed Inspector for the region that efforts had been made to co-opt plant protection officers for that work. 24 Jan. 09