Accra, Ghana
December 23, 2013
Mr. Zakaria Sumani Iddrisu, the Managing Director of Heritage Seeds Company Limited - supported by AGRA - was recently named the National Best Seed Grower Farmer during Ghana's 29th National Farmer's Day. The event was held at Sogakofe in the country's Volta Region.
Agriculture, it is said, begins with seeds. Good seeds in good soils produce good yields. Africa's vast lands are yearning for good seeds to increase yields to improve the food security situation across the continent. Unfortunately, at the operational and policy levels in countries across Africa, the seed industry is going through a lot of challenges ranging from low quality to non-availability of the much-needed input. AGRA's Program for Africa's Seed Systems (PASS) is designed to get improved and higher-yielding seeds to Africa's farmers to help them increase their productivity and incomes.
Since 2008, AGRA has been providing technical and financial support to seed companies in Ghana as well as a number of other African countries. Heritage Seeds Company Limited is one such company. It has benefitted from AGRA's support in form of grants as well as on-site technical advice through field trips, workshops, training sessions, and coaching over the years. The firm received a grant to produce certified seeds, create awareness among farmers on the new seeds and distribute the new seeds to farmers. Through efficient coaching and other technical support received from Program staff of AGRA, Mr. Idrissu moved from producing Open Pollinated Variety (OPV) to improved variety seeds within a short period, which has resulted in winning this prestigious award.
"This award gives our grantee the platform as private sector small-scale seed producers to talk with public sector stakeholders about partnerships that will benefit both parties and move the seed industry in Ghana forward. Through AGRA's support, Idrissu has become a success story and a source of motivation for small-scale seed producers to strive for excellence in their work," says Dr. Issoufou Kapran, AGRA's Program Officer for Seed Production and Dissemination. "Through enterprises such as Heritage Seed Company, AGRA is creating the needed impact on the ground."
AGRA believes that if the needed support is provided to train researchers and scientists to develop, register, and disseminate improved seed varieties to smallholder farmers across Africa, the story of Africa's agriculture will be told differently; and if the private sector is encouraged to invest heavily in agriculture across the continent, several poor families will have different stories to tell about their livelihoods.
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is a not-for-profit organization formed in 2006 to work with African governments, farmers, donors, NGOs and the private sector to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa through agricultural development targeted at resource poor farmers. AGRA programs develop practical solutions to significantly boost farm productivity and incomes for the poor while safeguarding the environment. AGRA advocates for policies that support its work across all key aspects of the African agricultural value chain ¬from seeds, soil health and water to markets and agricultural education.
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