Farmers in the Fanteakwa North District in the Eastern Region have expressed satisfaction with the yield of two varieties of maize introduced in the area by LCIC. They said the new varieties -Legacy 2 and Legacy 26, when cultivated during the appropriate season, are capable of yielding approximately eight to nine tonnes per hectare.The farmers expressed their satisfaction with the new varieties at a demonstration farm at Onuku Besea, one of the farming communities in the area. The farmers were taken to the demonstration farm by the Executive Director of the Legacy Crop Improvement Centre (LCIC), a private seed company that produces and promotes, Dr Amos Rutherford Azinu and the Fanteakwa North District Director of Agriculture, Mr. Solomon Anani Attipoe, to learn more about the new varieties.
Maturity
Dr Azinu, who indicated that the new varieties were climate resilient, said this year, over 100 tonnes of such seeds had been sold locally. He explained that on average, each farmer had been given 30 kilos of the new varieties for cultivation.
“Now that the farmers have realised the very high yield of the new varieties, I do not believe that our farmers will go back to farmers’ saved seeds which cannot give so much yield,” he said.
Affordable seeds
“A farmer needs GH¢280 to get enough seeds of the new varieties to plant one acre, so most of the farmers can afford to purchase,” Dr Azinu stated. Dr Azinu said Ghana had all the potential to produce enough maize for sale and consumption, but the lack of technology was hindering such a goal and that was why LCIC was changing the mode of production.
He was, therefore, hopeful that in the next five years, Ghana would have more commercial farms producing high-yielding varieties of maize. That, he said, would ensure food security because Ghana would be able to feed the people.
Farmers appreciation
Some of the farmers expressed satisfaction about the yield of the new varieties and stated that they would now cultivate such varieties. One of the farmers who cultivated the new varieties of maize seeds, Jude Adinkraba-Appaw, said he was able to double his yield with the new varieties. He advised colleague farmers to only cultivate the new varieties to make more income for themselves and their dependents.