Dr Amos Rutherford Azinu, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Legacy Crop Improvement Centre (LCIC), has said Ghana must urgently adopt the Hyderabad’s seed cluster model to secure food systems and empower millions of smallholder farmers.
He said: “The world’s food security challenge isn’t simply about producing more seeds, it’s about cultivating systemic intelligence that transforms agriculture from subsistence into a strategic economic driver.
“Hyderabad’s fields don’t just grow crops; they cultivate a vision of what’s possible when biology meets policy, when innovation serves inclusion, and when a nation commits comprehensively to agricultural excellence.
“The blueprint exists. The question remains: who will follow it?”
In September 2025, Dr Azinu attended the India-Africa Seed Summit in Hyderabad, India, engaging with a diverse group of stakeholders, including government officials, researchers, and farmers, an experience that he said has reshaped his understanding of agricultural transformation.
The summit served as a platform for leaders and experts from various sectors to discuss innovative strategies and technologies aimed at improving sustainable agriculture across the African continent.
His experience at the summit underscores the critical importance of collaboration and knowledge-sharing in addressing food security and enhancing the resilience of agricultural systems in both Africa and India.
“As of 2025, India has cemented its status as the world’s fifth-largest seed economy, a remarkable achievement for a country that faced catastrophic famines just decades ago,” Dr Azinu said.
At the epicentre of this transformation stands Hyderabad, now the undisputed “Seed Capital of India” and a cornerstone of Asian food security.
He explained that Hyderabad’s evolution into the “Seed Bowl of Asia” represents far more than geographical fortune.
“The state of Telangana alone now supplies over 60 per cent of India’s seed requirement, a staggering concentration of productive capacity that didn’t happen by accident,” he said.
Dr Azinu emphasised that agricultural success demands more than fertile soil and climate.
“It requires deliberate concentration of expertise, capital, and infrastructure; what economists call the cluster effect. Hyderabad exemplifies this principle with precision,” he said.
The city hosts over 400 seed companies alongside world-renowned research institutions, including ICRISAT and the Indian Institute of Millets Research.
“This dense ecosystem creates powerful synergies. Research breakthroughs rapidly translate into commercial products. Logistics networks operate efficiently. Talent pools deepen expertise,” Dr Azinu said.
For Ghana and other African nations, he argued, this clustering strategy offers a replicable model.
“Rather than dispersing agricultural development efforts across vast territories, concentrating resources in strategically selected zones can accelerate transformation exponentially,” he added.
India’s seed multiplication framework operates on a rigorous three-generation system encompassing Breeder Seeds, Foundation Seeds, and Certified Seeds.
“This hierarchical approach ensures genetic purity and consistently high yields reach the farmer in the field,” Dr Azinu said.
He stressed that trust forms the bedrock of the seed industry, stating, “Farmers investing in improved seeds must have absolute confidence in what they’re planting.
“By implementing OECD-standard certification protocols and digitalised tracking systems, India built an infrastructure where even smallholder farmers can access verified, premium-quality seeds with complete traceability.”
For developing economies where counterfeit inputs remain rampant, Dr Azinu said this certification architecture represents not just quality control but a foundation for market credibility and farmer prosperity.
He noted that India’s seed sector demonstrates that advances emerge not from government or private enterprise alone, but from strategic collaboration.
“Government-led bodies like ICAR develop approximately 86 per cent of seed varieties. Meanwhile, the private sector drives roughly 60 per cent of production volume, particularly in high-value segments like vegetable seeds. Synergy consistently outperforms competition,” he said.
At the India-Africa Seed Summit 2025, this partnership model was showcased in action, leveraging public research institutions and private capital to address global challenges such as climate-resilient crop development.
Dr Azinu cited AI-powered precision agriculture projected to increase crop yields by 20 per cent through optimised sowing and predictive analytics.
“Blockchain traceability ensures farm-to-fork transparency. Rapid seed viability testing reduces waste and accelerates quality control,” he said.
India’s seed sector is projected to reach $7 billion by 2030, which Dr Azinu noted reflects systemic strengths rather than temporary booms.
For Ghana, the lessons are clear and urgent, he declared: establish agricultural clusters, implement rigorous quality assurance, foster public-private partnerships, embrace digital agriculture, and design inclusive systems that empower smallholder farmers.
Source: Access Agric
