The enterprises are dynamic and able to produce and market seed, despite limits on the availability of capital. This paper examines the nature of small-scale maize and cowpea seed enterprises in the two regions of Brong Ahafo and Ashanti and describes how actors in the system learn about seed quality and the trustworthiness of people they are dealing with. It explores how farmers get access to seed and how they obtain information on what they are buying and whom they are dealing with. The growers interviewed in the study accounted for 25 per cent of formal seed production in Ghana in 1997. Finance for seed production comes from the grower.
Credit given by seed dealers is also important.
There are no legal contracts, so credit arrangements are based on trust, social pressure and coercion. Seed dealers range in size, managing between one and four stores. Some also play a wholesale role, working through agents who take seed on credit. Seed dealers buy from a number of growers and obtain information on seed supply from sources including Ministry of Food and Agriculture seed inspectors acting unofficially. Growers and dealers must find ways to acquire the latest price information as prices can change at short notice when demand is high.