The Legacy Crop Improvement Centre (LCIC), a private local seed company, which specializes in producing and marketing basic seeds, has called on smallholder Ghanaian farmers to transition to commercial agriculture to enhance their livelihoods.
Dr Amos Rutherford Azinu, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LCIC, made this known when it hosted a maize variety show to illustrate the prospect of its products to stallholder farmers and raise awareness about its latest hybrid maize seeds.
Dr Amos Rutherford Azinu explained that the two improved maize seed varieties known as “Legacy 2” for the white type and “Legacy 26” for the yellow corn, are considered as game changers for Ghana and West Africa. He added that both new and improved varieties have the potential to yield between eight and nine tonnes per hectare, compared to past varieties.
Dr Azinu iterated that the improved seeds provide higher yields, resistance to diseases and pests, adaptation to climate change, enhanced nutrition and has an extended shelf life. He opined that if farmers embrace the variety and receive the requisite support services, “this could become a game changer for Ghana, helping mitigate food insecurity and significantly improving income levels of farmers. Compared to other varieties in the past, most of the old varieties have to mature between 120 to 130 days, but these legacy varieties take 85 to 90 days,” he added.
Dr Azinu, moreover, stated that farmers could do three productions in a single year and given satisfactory and suitable training, it would drive greater output and reduce Ghana’s reliance on western nations for maize supply.
“If we have 60 per cent of the world’s uncultivated arable land and we have 1.4 billion people and mouths to feed, I don’t understand why we should allow two countries, Russia and Ukraine, whose populations are not more than 200 million, to feed 1.4 billion people.”
Dr Amos Rutherford Azinu
Small-Holder Farming System Not a Viable Solution to The Problem of Food
Dr Azinu noted that the small-holder farming system is not a viable solution to the problem of food shortages, hence urged the government to increase investment for massive transition of small-scale agriculture into a commercial industry within the next five years. This strategic approach, he said, is expected to result in a robust supply of high-quality food for the nation.
Mr Solomon Anani Attipoe, the Fanteakwa North District Director of Agriculture, also intimated that the two new varieties hold great potential for raising maize production in the district, because they are local hybrids with high yielding prospects.
Mr Attipoe noted that most farmers in the community grow open varieties like ‘Obaatanpa and Abontem,’ which have discouragingly low yields, causing farmers to abandon maize cultivation owing to substantial losses. He added that that the introduction of the improved varieties would revive maize production. “When we look at the demonstration we have carried out, we realise that the yield is very good, which will help us produce lots of maize that will serve the country,” Mr Attipoe said.
Meanwhile, Mr Attipoe educated that one unique feature of the legacy maize varieties is their resistance to fall armyworm and required substantially less fertilizer, than the varieties presently used by farmers. He advised farmers to avoid using chemicals to dry their seeds and instead adopt technologies that have been verified as safe to minimize potential health hazards.
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