Association calls for Minister's intervention

Members of the Greater Accra and Eastern Region Zone Seed Growers' Association have called on the Minister of Food and Agriculture to help to stop the selling of grains as certified maize seeds to farmers.

The Association said this was necessary if the country were to continue to sustain the high productivity in maize production.

"This will also help to promote a good seed maize industry that can take advantage of the large export market in Africa to enable the country to earn some foreign exchange.''

The call was contained in a resolution the Association adopted at a meeting on Tuesday.

The resolution said most of the grains that had been packed into sacks as seed maize and being sold cheaply at the markets in the Eastern Region originated from the Kumasi Kejetia Market.

It, therefore, called on the Ministry to take measures to get rid of the cheats in the system "before they destroy the seed maize industry".

The Association also called on the Ministry and Parliament to hasten the review of the national seed law and to make it a crime for anyone to sell unapproved seeds.

The resolution also called for the provision of a means of transport for the seed inspectors in the country to enable them to supervise and monitor activities within the seed production industry.