National Seed Policy 2013.

Agriculture is the driving force behind the economy and food security needs of Ghana and quality seeds constitute the most critical input for agricultural development. The seed sector aims to enhance the role of agriculture in meeting the national goals. The main objective of the National Seed Policy is to support the development and establishment of a well-coordinated, comprehensive and sustainable private sector-driven seed industry through systematic and strategic approaches which would continuously create and supply new improved varieties for use by farmers and, further, support successful seed production, certification, marketing and seed security systems which will form the basis for food security and support the overall development of the agricultural sector. Seeds are the basic unit of plant propagation and as such they are the most crucial input in agricultural production. Certified seed usage and matching applications of other simple agricultural technologies can lead to doubling of current crop yields and enable Ghana’s agriculture to play its food security role more creditably. Quality seeds are a prerequisite to successful agricultureand constitute a major pathway for the achievement of national food security goals.
The National Seed Policy will have two dimensions with regard to scope. Firstly, with regard to technical principles and guidelines, it will have applicability to seeds of all crops grown in Ghana, including both true seeds and vegetative planting materials and covering all crops, including ornamentals, forest trees, cash crops etc. This implies that, irrespective of the crop type, the application of the technical principles enshrined in the policy, will derive positive benefits. Secondly, the policy will have operational and programme applicability to all crops that are listed as priority crops of the seed sector.
The strategy followed in the early part of the seed sector development was based on public sector investment and subsidized seed supplies to farmers. The public investmentand subsidies involved in that approach was based on Government’s desire to achieve widespread use of quality seeds in order to enhance agricultural productivity and an escalation, both qualitative and quantitative, in crop production, particularly of the main cereals (maize and rice) and of the main legumes (groundnut and cowpea).
The objective of the policy on research and variety development is to enhance the support to research in the areas of upgraded human, physical and financial resources to undertake both basic and adaptive research in collaboration with partners, both internal and external, in order to derive new varieties which are most suited to the Ghanaian agro-ecologies and end use and to ensure that processes of variety testing, release and registration as well as issues of ownership and other rights are adequately addressed as per international norms and standards.
The objective of a seed security policy is to encourage and promote the development of steps and processes aimed at quickly restoring the productive capacity of rural populations affected by disasters so that as soon as possible, they are able to recover their livelihoods and curtail or reduce their dependence on food aid. A higher goal of this policy is to enhance the continuous availability of and access to quality seeds under all conditions, both good and bad.