Smallholder farmers in Ghana are expected to be empowered in the technical and managerial aspects of their work through capacity building.

The programme which comes on Thursday, June 30 is dubbed Entrepreneurship for Commercial Seed Incubation Business (ECoSIB). It is championed by Agri-Impact, a private agricultural consulting firm.

It is expected to help Ghanaian farmers undertake activities usually considered the no-go area for them due to their limited technical knowledge.

Executive Director of Agri-Impact, Dan Acquaye, has expressed optimism in the programme, noting, it will equip the farmers to be calculative of what they do.

“Commercial farming is not just about throwing any seed around and expecting magic for good yield,” he said, adding, many farmers do that to their own disappointment.

With expertise in agric-related issues, Mr Acquaye said: “Superior quality seed is fundamental to productivity and profitability of every smallholder farmer.”

This, he believes could only take place when the farmers learn to professionalise their work in the areas of seed entrepreneurs, promoting availability and use of high-quality seed and security of their produce.

Touching on the programme, he said: “ECoSIB is an initiative to strengthen the business acumen of seed enterprises to adopt the public-private partnership (PPP) approach and provides a one-stop-shop for seed entrepreneurs through mentoring and handholding services.”

The programme is funded by the Scaling Seed and Technologies Partnership (SSTP) of AGRA through FARA under the theme “Increasing availability and accessibility of seeds of superior variety to smallholder farmers in Ghana.”