The Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) has denied importing tones of maize seed from Brazil. SADA stated categorically that per its mandate, the Authority at no point in time imported maize seeds from South Africa and Brazil as purported by sections of the media.
This Follows a front page report on the Wednesday, June 5, 2013 edition of the Ghanaian Times captioned: “Tonnes of Maize Seed Locked Up….As SADA imports from Brazil”,. In a statement issued in Tamale and signed by communications specialist with SADA, Edem Worlanyo and copied to Zaa NEWS described the story as full of fabrication, untruth and very speculative to begin with.
The statement said, SADA has not either directly or indirectly engaged any entity or group of persons whatsoever to import maize seeds from South Africa or Brazil on its behalf to be distributed to farmers as alleged by the paper.
As part of the normal procurement process, SADA advertised for bidders to apply and procure hybrid maize seeds (seeds with high yield potential) for distribution to farmers in the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone (NSEZ) in 2012.
This, the statement said is a normal procurement process that has to be undertaken to ensure transparency of the process and to guarantee that, seed specifications are met.
This is a competitive process and at no point in time did Seed Producers Association of Ghana (SeedPAG) send in an application to SADA or made specific enquiries from SADA to see if they could be a caveat for them to be treated separately given their situation at the time.
It said, SADA at no point in time gave assurances to SeedPAG to purchase produce from the group as alleged by the Upper West Regional Correspondent of the Ghanaian Times.
SADA started implementing its agricultural programmes only in late 2011 and not 2010 as the writer seeks to mislead and misinform.
The statement said, it is within the authority’s purview to promote and strengthen the private sector under the NSEZ. Therefore, the doors of SADA are widely opened to any group of persons or entities that are interested in partnering with SADA to promote the private sector under NSEZ.
However in this case, SeedPAG has never approached SADA on any platform or forum to discuss the issue of supplying SADA with locally produced maize seeds.
SADA formally began full-scale operations only last year (2012), however according to the said report, the SeedPAG maize seeds have been locked up in the warehouse three years after production. Consequently, we see this piece of information as very misleading and absurd, calculated to tarnish the good image of SADA before the wider public.
Finally, we wish to state categorically that SADA only facilitates and supports projects and programmes in partnership with our service providers. The authority could not have therefore imported maize seeds from South Africa and Brazil, and distributing them to farmers as alleged by the newspaper. We also found it strange that the Ghanaian Times correspondent did not do any painstaking investigation or due diligence to at least get the SADA side of the story before press.
SADA shall investigate this issue further and put into the public domain, the bare facts so that the Ghanaian tax payer will know the truth of the issues. We are in support of local farmers and want to ensure they earn higher income levels far and above subsistence – this is a strategic mandate that SADA will continue to pursue to achieve the expected goals.