Leveraging the Private and Public Sectors to Solve the Challenge of Lack of Sorghum Foundation Seed

One of the goals of the Faranaya-2SCALE partnership is to increase the production of sorghum in northern Ghana. However, one challenge that has been prevalent since the inception of the partnership is the inconsistency in volume and in quality of sorghum produced. This poses a challenge both to Faranaya and the smallholder farmers as they are unable to maximize on the market opportunities in the sorghum value chain. Given the challenge of lack of access to sorghum seed which is not only limited to Northern Ghana but the country at large, the partnership resolved to take a sector change approach. This is a novel concept which 2SCALE is pioneering that is aimed at solving agriculture value chain problems that are deemed to be too complex to be solved only by the partnership actors. This entails involving the private and public sectors to form an Informal Change Alliance (ICA) aimed at understanding the challenges and opportunities for mutual gain if a particular challenge is solved.

The partnership, after a consultative process with value chain stakeholders, sought to collaboratively engage the private and public sectors to solve the issue of lack of adequate access to foundation seed. This dual approach is critical due to the different yet complementary roles that each of the sector plays. The government is interested in ensuring food security and as a result plays a critical role in research, advisory, dissemination and local adoption of seed varieties with the private sector facilitating the commercial cross-pollination of best practices and innovations from across the region.

“The demand of sorghum is growing and as a business we want to ensure that we can satisfy the demand as this creates opportunities both for Faranaya and our farmers. One of the challenges that we realized as a constraint to enhancing sorghum production was the lack of sufficient quantities of foundation seed. Previously even getting 5kg of foundation seed was a challenge whereas now, we have reduced the deficit significantly thanks to the work of Savannah Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) and also the Change Alliance,”says Obed Asunka, Managing Director or Faranaya.

Public Sector Approach

For majority sorghum farmers in northern Ghana, the seed they plant mainly are native varieties, also called Open Pollinated Varieties (OPV’s), namely the Kapaala and Dorado varieties. However, there is a big challenge of unavailability of foundation seed for multiplication or widespread access. Foundation seed is critical to ensure that farmers can plant enough quantities of sorghum commensurate to their farms in a timely manner. This challenge in accessibility has been identified through the regular meetings with value chain actors as a key constraint to production. To mitigate this challenge, 2SCALE sought to engage the Savannah Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) to produce foundation seed for multiplication. Legally, it is only SARI that can produce foundation seed to be multiplied for communal use, making it critical for the partnership to engage with the Institute.

“For us our role in enhancing sorghum production in the Upper East Region is twofold: one is through researching on Kapaala and Dorado OPVs that are more resilient to drought and disease with higher yields. Secondly, we also focus on technology transfer to farmers. This is done by farmer field days where we exhibit new varieties and train farmers on Good Agronomic Practices and via our extension team that follows up to ensure farmers who adopt the enhanced varieties have adequate support,” says Peter Asungre, the Research Scientist at the SARI Research station in Manga.

SARI has played a pivotal role in enhancing the production of breeder seed by providing breeder seed to their progressive out-grower farmers at no cost. These farmers through the supervision of SARI and Plant Protection and Regulatory Services (PPRSD) then plant the seed to be able to produce foundation sorghum seed. After harvest, SARI facilitates the certification of the foundation seeds so seed growers can purchased and multiply.

Private Sector Approach

To further ensure widespread availability of foundation seed and expand the pool of available options, the partnership has also been working with the private sector to ensure availability of hybrid sorghum seeds. Typically, smallholder farmers in Northern Ghana cultivate sorghum OPV varieties namely Kapaala and Dorado varieties. However, the challenge with the OPV’s is that they are more susceptible to disease and weather variations and their yield is not optimal. To solve this challenge, the partnership has engaged Callighana, a local input provider, to facilitate the importation of a new hybrid sorghum variety called PAC 501. This variety has average yield levels of 7.5 tons per hectare, which is higher than the Kapaala and Dorado varieties which have yields of 4 and 3.5 tons per hectare respectively. PAC 501 is also more drought and disease resistant than the local OPVs.

Hybrid seeds cost more than OPV’s but their productivity, and drought resistance makes them appealing to farmers. This creates an opportunity for input dealers like Callighana to fill that void by facilitating the importation of hybrid varieties.

Future outlook

Ultimately, both private and public sector approaches are aimed at giving smallholders different options so that dependent on their context farmers can choose what is best for them. By ensuring an abundance of OPV and hybrid seed varieties, the issue of lack of access to seed by smallholder farmers will be abdicated for good.