GHANA – The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI) has unveiled new drought-tolerant seed varieties with an aim of improving food security in Ghana.
The research institution has developed new maize, rice, soybean, sorghum and groundnut drought-tolerant seed varieties which SARI says their performance has been proven to be 20% higher.
According to a report by Ghana News Agency SARI revealed that the cultivars have been produced in sufficient quantities and distributed to certified seed input dealers to be made available to farmers for their crop production.
Dr. Nicholas Ninju Denwar, a Senior Research Scientist at CSIR-SARI, noted that this new development will help bridge the gap between demand and supply
“In Northern Ghana, rainfall is not adequate and nor is the distribution consistent.
Though we may have enough rain, the distribution is not good – leading to drought during the raining or dry seasons; and sometimes the rain even ends earlier than it is supposed to, which does not allow the crops to grow well; hence the initiative of the research institute.” he said
The Planting for Food and Jobs programme is a government initiative that seeks to enhance food security and job-creation as
He noted that production of the
Dr. Nicholas said that the research institution is committed to partnering various bodies such as the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to produce more foundation seeds to feed farmers in the sector.
“We have adequate quality condition seeds for all the farmers, but it’s left with the seed producers to access and nurse them for the farmers,” he said.
He highlighted that almost 80-90% of all varieties used by farmers are SARI-improved varieties that are accepted and adopted by the farmers.
However, he stressed
“One major problem we encounter is the inability of farmers to adopt good agronomic practices to