New hybrid maize seeds with the magnitude of increasing the country’s food buffer stock with its maturity span of only 85 days are about to be introduced into the system.
Produced by Seed Co West & Central Africa, the SC419 certified hybrid maize seed is in the country, verified, tested and it is about to be demonstrated by the farmers to have alternative hybrid maize seed maturity periods.
Ghana’s maize supply falls below its demand. This creates shortage problems which lead to price hikes every year. Maize is one of the staple food crops in Ghana. To curb its regular shortage, the introduction of SC419 maize seed variety which takes 85 days for maturity would provide farmers the best options to determine which hybrid maize seeds to cultivate to save food security in the country.
“Seed Co is introducing new variety called SC419 and the advantage of this variety is that a short season variety, it takes only 85 days to maturity whiles the yield is relatively high, it gives up to 8 metric tonnes per hectare”, Dr. Takemore Chagomoka, the Regional Manager, West and Central Africa of Seed Co said.
Speaking to Agric Today Media, Dr. Takemore explained that the introduction of SC419 is to give farmers choices and opportunities in terms of maturities thus 85 days for early maturity.
Bridging the gap
According to Dr. Takemore, the strategy of Seed Co is not to force seed varieties on farmers but to give the farmers the opportunity to grow the varieties, know the effect and make decisions.
Life is tough for farmers in Ghana specifically the smallholder farmers, many of whom live below the poverty line. To worsen the issue, climate change is creating havoc: maize farmers are experiencing unexpected weather patterns and hot humidity. As farmers battle for this challenge, the fall of armyworm continues to disrupt resulting to lower income and food insecurity in the country as was witnessed at the beginning of this year.
In order to improve the living standard of the farmers, it is the mandate of Seed Co to produce hybrid maize seed variety SC419 which takes less than 3months to mature to resolve maize shortage issues coupling with price hikes in the country. This has the tendencies of breaking monopolistic nature in the system as well as stopping the importation of maize, and increase the income level of the farmers.
