MOFA should be serious on seed production

Amasaman, April 07, GNA-The National President of the Seed Producers Association of Ghana (SEEDPAG), Mr. Patrick Apullah, has called on the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to organize a stakeholders' forum to streamline the seed industry in the country. He said the government's desire and efforts to achieve food sufficiency in the country to a large extend depend on the availability of good certified seeds.

Mr. Apullah told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that most of the institutions set up to help promote the growth of the seed industry in the country were not living up to expectations and in some cases there were clear evidence that some senior officials had placed their personal interest above that of their institutions and the state. He had addressed a two-day workshop organized by the Seed Inspectorate Division of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) at Amasaman for regional representatives of (SEEDPAG) and the Agriculture Input Dealers Association of Ghana (GAIDA) on the Seed Bill before Parliament and the seed certification process.

Mr. Apullah said the passage of the new seed law alone was not enough to "produce the needed effect" without some institutional restructuring, improvement in monitoring, collaboration and provision of the needed resources for the institutions to deliver on their mandate. He said for some years now, the Grains and Legumes Board had not been able to supply sufficient quantities of foundation seeds to meet the demands of seed growers in the country and the situation continued to get worse by the year.

According to Mr. Apullah, there were a lot of investors into the agriculture sector with some of them importing their own seeds without passing them through the various structures as required by the laws of the country. He said there was the need for the Seed Law to be applied to help protect the Ghanaian environment and seeds available in the country from avoidable dangers. 07 April 10