As part of government policy aimed at attaining food security in achieving the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda, Cowpea has been added to the Government flagship Programme, Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ).
It is against this backdrop that the Manga Station of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) – Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (CSIR-SARI) in the Bawku Municipality of the Upper East Region has organized a stakeholder’s meeting under the theme “promoting Cowpea seed production using out-growers and community seed production schemes” under the Kirkhouse Trust Cowpea Seed dissemination project which aim at Promoting farmer’s access to Seeds of Climate Resilience Cowpea Varieties (CRCV).
The meeting brought together six stakeholders each from six Districts across the Upper East Region, made up of Crops Officers, Cowpea seed growers and seed dealers who have the capacity to adapt out-growers to increase their cowpea seed production.
According to the Lead Scientist of the Kirkhouse Trust Project, Dr. Francis Kusi, the findings from the seed dissemination project over the past two and half years have shown that the out-growers and the community seed production schemes can be used to rapidly increase cowpea seed production to meet the demand of cowpea seed for the PFJ program.
There is therefore the need to promote the out-grower and the community seed production systems among seed growers as a means to increase their cowpea seed production. In an interview with Radio Ghana,
Dr. Kusi, mentioned that the Kirkhouse project over the years has trained a lot of farmers in cowpea producing communities in seed production, hence the need to link them up to the big time seed growers to be captured into their system as out growers and supported to increase their cowpea seed production.
Dr. Kusi indicated that, there is going to be huge demand for certified seeds of cowpea because, beside the demand from the Planting for Food and Jobs, USAID Agricultural Project is entering another phase targeting the five Regions of the North of which cowpea is one of the focal crops. The lead Scientist, took the participants through the economic potentials of the two CRCV – Wang Kae and Kirkhouse Benga, and said the features of the varieties are: Early maturing, Striga resistant, Aphid resistant, Drought tolerant, Macrophomina and Rhizoctonia resistance, High yielding, Semi spreading, (dual purpose), require little energy to cook (cook fast), Stable yield under residual moisture and Heat tolerant.
Dr. Kusi emphasized that the initial targets of the Kirkhouse Trust Project were to ensure that different seed types (breeder, foundation and certified seeds) of the CRCV are available in right quantities and timely, to use the community seed production approach to ensure availability of the seeds of the CRCV to rural farmers and also ensure that the seeds of the CRCV are widely disseminated across the five regions in northern Ghana and beyond An Officer of the Ghana Seed Inspection Unit of the Upper East Region, Mr. Adjei Denis, in his presentation on seed production regulations said, certified seed is key to farmers in planting as far as food security is concern.
He advised farmers to make sure they always use certified seeds for production to maximize their productivity. A crop Officer at the Binduri Department of Agriculture, Richard Akolomolga, lauded the government’s policy of Planting for Food and Jobs and was hopeful that, the collaborative efforts of CSIR-SARI and the Department of Agriculture will lean much support to the PFJ program.
He also lauded Dr. Kusi for his initiatives under his projects over the years that have contributed immensely to the growth of agriculture in Upper East Region and Northern Ghana as a whole.
Story by :Emmanuel Akayeti