The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of the Savannah Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) has produced about 4 metric tonnes (MT) of foundation seeds of sorghum for multiplication into certified seed.

SeedPAC, peasant farmers and seed companies in the value chain have also produced about 12MT of Kapala and Dorado, sorghum varieties released by CSIR-SARI, out of which 8MT is yet to be certified.

CalliGh, leading the private sector approach has imported a total of 55MT of hybrid seeds during the 2021 and 2022 cropping season. 

Over 300 farmers during the seed fair purchased about 1.5MT of Kapala seeds while Faranaya has ordered for 10MT of certified seeds for the farmers.

It is expected that both approaches will make available 42MT of seeds enough to cover 5,600 hectares of field by 2023 cropping season.

This is part of greater efforts to make available quality seeds for sorghum farmers to better their yields and income. This will also meet the growing demand for sorghum by Guinness Ghana Ltd as raw material for brewery purpose.

"CSIR-SARI encouraged seed growers to continuously contact them for foundation seeds for multiplication in order to make available quality seeds for farmers in the future," Dr. Peter Asungre, plant breeder at SARI told JoyNews.

2SCALE through their Country Team Lead (CTL), Mr. Jalil Zakaria, challenged stakeholders to continue to invest in the sorghum value chain given its market potential and demand for sorghum.

Madam Adek Azantilow, GSID director called on other NGOs and private institutions to invest in other commodities like millet that have equally received little attention in improving its value chain.