In a move to strengthen Ghana’s seed system and accelerate agricultural innovation, the Crops Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR–CRI) has licensed 10 private seed companies to produce and distribute improved crop varieties developed by the Institute.

The initiative, led by Dr. Hillary Mireku Botey, Senior Research Scientist and Intellectual Property Officer at CSIR–CRI, is expected to enhance large-scale production, reduce post-development dormancy of varieties, and support the government’s feeding programme.

“This development will ensure that our varieties no longer sit on shelves unused. We are augmenting the work of private seed companies toward profitability and national impact,” Dr. Botey stated.

The announcement coincides with a five-day follow-up training on Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) testing of plant varieties held in Kumasi from November 3 to 7, 2025.

Organized through a collaboration between the Ghana Industrial Property Office (GHIPO) of the Registrar-General’s Department, the Royal Netherlands Embassy, and CSIR–CRI, the training builds on the foundational session held in November 2024.

The DUS training is focused on five key crops — rice, cowpea, yam, tomato, and maize — selected as prototypical varieties for testing. Notably, Dr. Botey explained that yam and cowpea were not widely cultivated or standardized globally, and therefore lack existing UPOV test guidelines. This gap has created an opportunity for CSIR–CRI to develop localized testing protocols that will help update and validate existing varieties in Ghana’s system.

Participants were drawn from leading national breeding and research institutions, including CSIR–Savanna Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), CSIR–Oil Palm Research Institute (OPRI), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), and the Directorate of Crop Services of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Dr. Ernest Baafi, Deputy Director of CSIR–CRI, expressed confidence that the training would equip national plant breeders and seed scientists to conduct DUS trials efficiently and effectively, in line with the Plant Variety Protection Act, 2020 (Act 1050) and its accompanying Regulations, 2022 (L.I. 2463).

The sessions were being facilitated by two international experts from Naktuinbouw, the Netherlands — Dr. Wim Sangster and Dr. Lizah van den Engel — alongside Dr. Botey.

The training features interactive, hands-on modules designed to align Ghana’s plant variety testing with international standards under the UPOV Convention.

By Kingsley E. Hope, Kumasi

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