Seed Council seeks stronger seed certification, traceability

The National Seed Council has called for enhanced seed production, certification, and traceability systems to improve farmers' access to high-quality planting materials. This call came during a regional tour by the Council in the Upper West Region, where they interacted with stakeholders such as seed producers, dealers, inspectors, and agricultural professionals.

The Council, established under the law governing the seed, fertiliser, and plant protection councils, aims to evaluate local seed growers' capacity, assess distribution networks' efficiency, and scrutinize the strictness of the certification framework. The Council is also exploring opportunities such as digitisation, including electronic seed tracking and authentication, and climate-smart varieties to strengthen the sector.

Additionally, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is implementing measures to support irrigation and tomato production, partnering with research institutions to develop climate-resilient tomato varieties, and strengthening seed traceability to help farmers identify the source of seed packages. However, a challenge identified by the Upper West Regional Director of Agriculture is the lack of adequate transport for seed inspectors, which affects seed certification in the region.

Brief written by urgent.news from Ghanaian Times's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.