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Expanding supply of improved seed to farmers in northern Ghana to increase food security

OAR@ICRISAT

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/9211/
http://tropagconference.com.au/program.html
 
Title Expanding supply of improved seed to farmers in northern Ghana to increase food security
 
Creator Webster, T
Atokple, I
Etwire, P
Alhessan, D
Carberry, P S
 
Subject Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
 
Description The global problem of food security is particularly acute in many parts of west Africa, where food
production needs to increase to meet growing demand. The ‘Green Revolution', where improved
crop varieties are matched with improved management practices (particularly fertilisers), has
been very successful in increasing food production in many parts of the world. However, in much
of west Africa farmers have not adopted improved crop varieties. There are many reasons behind
this lack of implementation, such as access to finance, access to improved varieties, access to
market and government policy constraints. One major roadblock to adoption of improved
varieties identified in Savelugu, northern Ghana, was a lack of sufficient improved cowpea seed
(an important cash crop). In northern Ghana there are very few certified seed producers, mainly
due to the highly regulated certification process. More than 90% of seed is traded between
farmers in an ‘informal' seed market. In trials conducted in the Savelugu region improved,
certified, cowpea varieties consistently outperformed farmer varieties and at field days farmers
showed a strong preference for improved varieties.In the Savelugu region we worked with an
Innovation Platform on a pilot system where one seed producer contracted ‘out‐growers' to
produce certified seed, while the seed producer performed the certification processes and
provide the required inputs and technical support. These out‐growers were situated in villages
around Savelugu, where they were able to use the informal supply chain to deliver 20 additional
tonnes of certified seed to farmers in the first year of operation.
 
Date 2015-11
 
Type Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/9211/1/TropAg2015-125-126.pdf
Webster, T and Atokple, I and Etwire, P and Alhessan, D and Carberry, P S (2015) Expanding supply of improved seed to farmers in northern Ghana to increase food security. In: Tropical Agriculture Conference 2015: Meeting the Productivity Challenge in the Tropics, November 16 - 18, 2015, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre, Australia.