Ghana Seed Partnership

The ultimate objective of the Ghana Seed Partnership is to improve the performance, sustainability and resilience of the horticulture farming system in Ghana through skills and market development, variety testing and improving the enabling environment in the vegetable seed sector. To achieve this, the project takes a holistic approach to address the productivity, regulatory, knowledge and investment challenges involving all relevant stakeholders, including growers, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, agricultural colleges, agricultural research institutes, seed companies, seedling companies and distributors.

Partners

The project is implemented by a partnership of 13 organizations, including Ghana Netherlands Business and Culture Council (GNBCC, as program manager), Truvalu, Simba, Enza Zaden, Bakker Brothers, IWAD, Profyta, East-West Seeds, RijkZwaan, Zasco, WUR, SeedNL and Advance Consulting. These organizations co-created 4 interrelated Work Packages with a clear focus that re-enforce one another to holistically address the challenges in Ghana’s vegetable seed sector.

Activities

To achieve GNSP’s objective, four work packages have been created:

  1. Enabling environment support
    Improve the regulatory framework, support the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and advance public-private knowledge and dialogue on vegetable seeds.

  2. Commercial seedling production
    Research and establish the first commercial vegetable seedling nursery in Ghana, build capacity of agricultural colleges and growers on seedling production and cultivation.

  3. Variety trials
    Test different varieties, perform breeding tests, test different levels of mechanisation and build capacity of agricultural colleges on variety trials.

  4. Market development
    Develop the market for hybrid varieties through research, demonstrations and a social media campaign.

SeedNL will work closely with EKN in Ghana, WUR and Dutch private sector on Work Package 1 to support the Technical Working Group on Seeds, develop several knowledge documents and document and communicate the achievements and lessons learned.

Contact

In case you’re interested to explore more about GSP, please contact Marijke Zonnenberg (mzonnenberg@seednl.nl).