Objectives

The overall goal of Bakker Brothers and its Ghanaian partner – Whytebage International is to contribute to healthy and quality vegetable production in Ghana, taking into account sustainable environmental and food safety standards by supplying hybrid varieties of tomato, capsicum, onion (sweet and hot) and eggplant that have the most optimal combination of yield potential, pest and disease resistance and market qualities.

Activities & expected deliverable

To achieve the purpose as formulated above, Bakker Brothers and its partner Whytebage International will implement the following main activities:

1. Development of an on farm participatory variety selection plan for tomato, capsicum, onion and aubergines

Deliverables:

Detailed varietal selection schedule based on a randomized complete block design

List of varieties of the four crops to be included in the varietal selection

Guidelines for Whytebage farm manager, farm workers and 15 contract farmers

The breeding and variety selection specialists of Bakker Brothers will develop a varietal selection plan that can be implemented at the farm of Whytebage International. In total around 0.5 ha will be planted. The trial design will be based on a randomized complete block design with three replications. The number of different hybrids that will be compared against an OP variety currently cultivated by Ghanaian growers will be as follows:

Tomato: 10 different hybrids (determinate for open field cultivation)

Capsicum: 10 sweet and 10 chillies hybrid varieties

Onion: 10 different hybrids

Aubergines 10 different hybrids.

In addition demonstration plots will be established at 25 farmers of the Whytebage International out grower scheme. At each of these smallholder farms 10 different hybrids of one of the vegetable crops will be planted next to a commonly used OP variety for comparison. The new hybrid varieties will be tested for yield and resistance (or tolerance). The resistance / tolerance levels will be tested for the following in particular:

Tomato – bacterial wilt and Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus (TYLCV)

Pepper – Potato virus Y (PvY)

Onion – downy mildew and bolting (day length sensitivity)

Aubergines – Fusarium wilt

For the management of the variety demonstration plots at Whytebage and farmers’ fields Bakker Brothers will develop cultivation guidelines together with the farm management and workers at the Whytebage farm. These guidelines will be in line with GlobalGAP to ensure compliance with the standards in the high-end domestic and export-markets. In addition a practical training will be given and guidelines will be developed for selected farm workers (crop scouts) on pests and disease recognition and scoring. Photographs and short descriptions of the main symptoms will be produced in advance of the trials.

Status

The project has developed trials with popular varieties like tomatoes, peppers and onions, but unfortunately encountered some problems with their irrigation-pumping system and electricity supply. Due to the distance between Accra and Vakpo, it furthermore proved difficult to provide sufficient oversight and support at the project. Mr. Ed Swier, Area Manager of Africa at Bakker Brothers, indicates that he believes that capacity building of farmers in how to rightly use input materials and apply production techniques are the most important factor for a successful vegetable sector. Despite the challenges in the Vakpo-demonstration project, Bakker Brothers still sees many opportunities in the Ghanaian vegetable sector, and they are considering starting a new demonstration project – this time closer to Accra and with sufficient access to water- for 2016 and 2017.