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Heritage Seeds is a field crop seed company that focuses on northern Ghana. Established in 2010, it specializes in seed production and sales. Its portfolio includes hybrid maize. Smallholder farmers are the company’s main clientele.
Access to Seeds Index
Western and Central Africa
Heritage Seeds ranks 22nd in the 2019 Index for Western and Central Africa, which places it second to last. The company exhibits some strengths in Seed Production by involving smallholder farmers in its activities, and in Marketing & Sales, thanks to its quality management system. Overall, however, its disclosure is poor, resulting in a lower ranking.
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| Seed type | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hybrid | OPV | GM | |||
| Field crops | |||||
| Cowpea | |||||
| Groundnut | |||||
| Maize | |||||
| Rice, paddy | |||||
| Soybean | |||||
No leading practices were identified.
Heritage Seeds can improve its score by publicly disclosing policies and activities related to improving access to seeds for smallholder farmers.
With seed production activities in Ghana, the company could be clearer about the scope of these activities and the conditions under which seed growers, including smallholder farmers, are employed.
Heritage Seeds is part of the Seed Trade Association of Ghana, a group established in 2014 with funding from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the USAID-funded Feed the Future Agriculture Technology Transfer Project and the Ghanaian Business Sector Advocacy Challenge Fund.
The company collaborates on the Tropical Legumes Project, a joint initiative with the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which aims to increase legume production in the region, specifically groundnut and cowpea.
To reach remote areas in northern Ghana, Heritage Seeds uses company delivery trucks. Occasionally, it also works with government schemes to disseminate seed, although these are irregular and unpredictable and the company states that it struggles to plan accordingly.
Although Heritage Seeds has experience in selling seed outside Ghana, it discontinued cross-border supply to focus on meeting local demand.
The company engages over 350 farmers as outgrowers in Ghana, the majority of whom are women.
Access to Seeds Index
Western and Central Africa
