To promote and develop agriculture in Ghana, the local seeds should be available in the market for the farmers to buy and cultivate.
Seed is critical in the production process and to ensure food security and good nutrition, Prof. Francis Kweku Amagloh has urged farmers to patronize the local seeds for their maximum nutritional value for growth and development.
“The major constraint we need to work against is the availability of seed. We need to make sure we develop the seed market for our indigenous vegetables because farmers buy tomato seeds to plant, we should also do the same thing, and we should be able to buy our indigenous vegetable seeds. It should be available at the market for us to buy”, Pro. Amagloh said.
He explained that there are some factors that hinder the growth of indigenous vegetable seeds in some parts of the country. These factors according to him are culture, rainfall pattern, taboos, and availability of seeds. Giving an example he said, in Accra, there are no bilva leaves because it was not available back the days.
Speaking to Agric Today, Prof. said Ghana’s micro-nutrient deficiency is high and Ghana has big nutritional issues, however, the local fruits and vegetables are power-houses of the nutrients therefore, we need to consider the indigenous fruits and vegetable seeds to obtain these nutritional losses.
He advocated for irrigation as a means of growing local seeds in every part of the country to promote food security.