Welcome to the Official Website of the Ministry of Food & Agriculture, Ghana. West Africa.

The mission of the Board is to produce and distribute good quality foundation seeds of cereals, legumes and vegetables as well as vegetatively propagated planting materials of cassava, plantain, yam, citrus and oil palm seedlings. In addition, it is to make available processing and storage facilities to registered seed growers and other farmers.

Production of Foundation Seeds of Cereals and Legumes
The Board is the sole producer of quality foundation seeds under the National Seed Programme. Breeder seeds of cereals and legumes are obtained from the Crops Research Institute (CRI) in Kumasi and the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) at Nyankpala to produce foundations seeds. These seeds are then supplied to registered seed growers for the production of certified seeds for farmers.

Production and Supply of Vegetatively Propagated Planting Materials
The activities of the Board include the production of cassava cuttings, plantain suckers, seed yams; and citrus and oil palm seedlings to meet the ever-increasing demand of farmers.

Provision of Agro-Processing Services
Processing and storage services are provided to registered seed growers and other farmers at three locations. Services include evacuation, shelling, drying, cleaning and storage. The locations are:

• Ho, for farmers in the Eastern and Volta Regions;
• Winneba, for farmers in the Central, Western and Greater Accra;
• Kumasi, for farmers in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions.

Management of Farmers Certified Seeds and the National Seed Security Stocks
Processed seeds are stored in cold rooms at the request of seed growers, institutions, organistions and other individual farmers.
Quantities of certified seeds procured as National Seed Security Stocks (NSSS) against disasters are kept in cold rooms at Ho, Winneba and Kumasi under the management of the Board. Management activities include routine sampling and testing. The Board has been managing NSS stocks since 1991.

Root and Tuber Improvement Programme (RTIP)
The RTIP started in June 1998. Under the programme, the country is divided into six zones with each zone managed by a Planting Material Officer form GLDB.
As an important aspect of the programme, the Board has the responsibility to establish cassava primary sites from where materials are coppiced for secondary sites established by farmers.

Vegetable Seed Production
Production of vegetable started during the last quarter 2000 on pilot basis. The aim was to produce onion seeds to support the production of onions at the Butanga Irrigation site near Tamale where the farmers import seeds from Burkina Faso. The programme has been expanded in the current year to include the production of seeds for okro and egg plant at other locations throughout the country.

NORTHERN REGION

For further information contact:

The Executive Director,
Grains and Legumes Development Board,
P. O. Box 4000, Kumasi-Ghana.
Tel.233 - 51-24231/24778.
Fax. 233 -51- 24778.
E-mail: gldb@ africaonline.com.gh