Ghana

Seed sector in Ghana

Prior to 1990, Ghana’s public sector thoroughly dominated the seed sector. The 2010 Plants and Fertilizer Act (part two) facilitates the private sector’s role in the country’s seed industry, and the private sector is represented in the National Seed Council as well as the National Variety Release and Registration Committee. Ghana has a national seed policy as well as a trade association, called the National Seed Trade Association of Ghana. In 2011, the country passed a biosafety law, which led to field testing a range of genetically modified crops. In 2016, Ghana ratified the ECOWAS-UEMOA-CILSS Regulations and has initiated the National Seed Plan, which defined 10 priority projects that, if implemented, will catalyze the orderly growth of the seed sector.

Multiple local seed producers and companies are active in Ghana, and these focus on the production and distribution of field crops. One of the leading companies is Heritage Seeds, which produces and markets certified seeds for several different field crops. Other larger companies include M&B Seeds and Agricultural Services, WEKU Farms, Yonifah Seeds Ltd., PAG Farms and Orison Farms Enterprise. These companies focus mainly on field crops. Companies such as Meridian Seeds and Nurseries Ghana distributed vegetable seeds.

The multinational company East-West Seed also provides vegetable seeds to farmers, as well as extension services through the 2SCALE program. To encourage a network of farmer dealers to use agriculture best practice production techniques, DowDuPont, in collaboration with USAID, launched the Ghana Advanced Maize Seed Adoption Program in 2014.

Observations

There are 17 index companies operating in Ghana, but only two accompany their sales activities with extension services. Five companies have testing locations in the country, but only Seed Co also has breeding activities.

Two companies, Heritage Seed and Seed Co, produce seeds in the country, and both involve smallholder farmers in their seed production activities. Heritage Seed, headquartered in Ghana, is the only company with a processing location there.