Farmers to benefit from high value seeds

By Standard Reporter

Nairobi, Kenya: Farmers in Africa will now be able to grow high value crops. This follows the launch of a private public partnership to tackle the shortage of quality seeds in Africa.

The pact by African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) supported by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) will ease the production of improved seed varieties by companies. The ‘Seeds2B’ programme will also make them easily available to farmers and at fewer prices.

“Together, we aim to help seed technology owners license their products to African seed companies who will consequently avail them to farmers, ” says AATF Executive Director Dr Denis Kyetere. Africa’s population continues to increase much faster than local food production. One major reason is that few of the continent’s farmers have access to clean and healthy seed.

“For many crops, the majority of smallholders rely on planting left-overs from the previous harvest”, says Dr Ian Barker, Head of Agricultural Partnerships at SFSA.

“Not only do they therefore miss out on new breeding developments, but old seed is often diseased and low yielding. As a result, crop yields and farm income remain far below their potential.” According to Dr Kyetere, technologies available could increase Africa’s agricultural productivity — getting them to farmers sustainably requires a functioning market, rather than handouts.  “AATF will act as a seed technology broker to help national agricultural research systems and private breeders transfer their technologies to local companies in return for fair fees,” says Dr Kyetere.

Seed availability

The new Seeds2B partnership overcomes two bottlenecks that limit seed availability. “African researchers have developed many improved seed varieties. They often have problems getting these out to farmers, because there are no easy mechanisms for sharing commercial benefits,” explained Dr Barker. He says technology owners need help in finding suitable seed company partners in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Seeds2B programme will build a reliable bridge between breeders and seed companies.

The programme currently focuses on Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal and Tanzania and seeks to expand the concept to Malawi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, Liberia, Guinea, Chad, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Uganda in due course. Key crops to be addressed include staples like sorghum, millet, rice, cassava and potato, as well as higher-value items such as sesame, sunflower, ground nuts and vegetables.