Bruckner Farms, a woman-led seed producing company in the Ejura Sekyedumase Municipality has received a grant from AGRA to expand operations.

The support is helping the company to produce and disseminate more certified hybrid maize seeds to smallholder farmers across the country.

CEO of the company Martha Bruckner says the support has enabled the firm to quadruple its number of women employees.

“When the season is at peak, we employ 300 women a day. And a few men to carry the bags for us… We are very grateful to AGRA… We are able to increase our productivity and (help) the women that we employ,” she said.

Employees of the company are equally excited. “At first, we couldn’t take our children to school. But now we earn money working at the seed company and additionally get a good yield from growing the hybrid maize seeds,” Fati Karim, a worker at the seed company and a farmer explained.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) in September 2020 rolled out the “Strengthening the Ghana Seed System to Enhance Quality Seed Delivery” initiative. The initiative awarded grants to a Certified Seed Consortium made up of the National Seed Trade Association of Ghana (NASTAG) and six (6) local private seed companies.

The overall goal of the award is to increase smallholder farmers’ incomes. It also aims to improve food and nutrition security in Ghana by strengthening the seed system to deliver 6,000 metric tonnes (MT) of high-quality seeds of maize hybrid, cowpea, soybean, and groundnuts to farmers.

Bruckner Farms received a grant award of $72,000 to produce and disseminate 528MT of certified seeds of maize hybrid to smallholder farmers and work with other consortium partners to popularize improved seeds.

Martha Bruckner says the hybrid maize seeds developed by the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) which her company has multiplied and is supplying to farmers, is giving them better productivity on their farms. It is also improving the lives of women farmers and others in the enclave.

“Apart from it giving us more yield, its increasing employment. It’s giving farmers who buy our seeds more money. District Assembly gets tax. So, it goes around.

"And the whole country benefits. And when the season is at its peak, we employ 300 women a day. And then we sell seeds to the Planting for Food and Jobs Program too,” she explained.   

“Because of the support we got from AGRA, we increased our acreage and got in more yield. By increasing our acreage, we also increased our workers. Because of the grant we got, we increased our productivity.

"This increased our money to be able to buy two tractors and a multipurpose harvester. And we have a planter. And another machine that grates the grains for us,” she said during a visit to her farm by some project officials.  

Haruna Atolai who grows a 25 acres of maize farm, also commends the quality of hybrid seeds Bruckner Farms supplies.

“Now, we have improved seeds from Bruckner Farms. The improved seeds mature early in 3 months. And it’s climate-resilient. So even if you have rain for 2 months, it matures well. Now, we don’t wait for 4 to 5 months to harvest,” he observes.