The West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) organized a workshop on public-private partnerships at the African Regent Hotel in August to discuss strategies to take the WACCI maize hybrids to farmers by 2023.
Representatives from WACCI, LCIC, New Age Agric Solutions and M&B Seeds at the workshop
Professor Eric Danquah, Director of WACCI, in his opening remarks said that WACCI had been working for close to four years to get its maize hybrids to farmers. He urged the actors of the maize value chain in Ghana to create sustainable environments to facilitate the dissemination of the value of the WACCI maize hybrids to farmers.
“I believe that public-private partnerships will create opportunities for scaling up seed production and distribution. By so doing, we will be able to get these hybrid seeds to farmers before the 2023 planting season”, he said.
Representatives from Legacy Crop Improvement Centre (LCIC), M&B Seeds and New Age Agric Solutions delivered presentations detailing the resources, strategies and capabilities in the value chain to send WACCI maize hybrids to farmers by 2023. Following discussions, LCIC and New Age were tasked to begin discussions on the next steps of their strategies and identify other key players needed to take the WACCI hybrids to farmers.
The three maize hybrid varieties – Abeefo Aburo, Aburo Legon and Akuafo Aburo – that have been released yield between 9-11 tonnes/hectare.