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October, 2008
Source:
CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 10,
October 2008
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On
part of his two-hectare farm in Muisuni village in
Kenya’s Kibwezi District, Josphat Kioko Matia has been
professionally producing improved drought tolerant maize
seed varieties for the past year. Providing technical
support to Matia and other farmers in this area is
George Muthama, an experienced maize breeder with
Freshco Seed Company—a company working with CIMMYT and
the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), on
whose farm the varieties shared with Matia and others
are developed. |
Senior policy makers from
sub-Saharan Africa have recently made recommendations for policy
actions to reform operations in the maize seed sector. At stake
is better access for millions of small-scale farmers to
affordable, quality seed of maize, the region's food staple.
CIMMYT is closely involved.
In the 2006-07 cropping season, 82
registered maize seed companies produced the bulk of just over
100,000 tons of improved maize seed that were marketed in the
major maize producing countries of eastern and southern Africa
(excluding South Africa) — enough to sow 35% of the maize land
in those countries.
A recent CIMMYT study found that restrictive national policies,
lack of credit opportunities, inadequate seed production
capacities, insufficient numbers of recently released public
sector varieties, and challenging marketing situations were the
main reasons why maize seed sector growth is slow in many
African countries. Worse, this situation contributes
significantly to Africa's poor food security and farm incomes.
“The good news is that we have today four times more seed
companies than ten years ago and they have increased seed
provision from 26% to 35% of the total planted maize area,” says
CIMMYT socioeconomist Augustine Langyintuo. "Yet there is still
a significant, unmet demand for seed, and this underscores the
need for new policies that support efficient seed production,
processing, and marketing."
In 2007 Langyintuo led the above-mentioned study to characterize
seed providers and bottlenecks to seed supplies in eastern and
southern Africa. A total of 117 representatives from seed
companies, national research programs, and CBOs/NGOs
participated, and information was gathered on the seed sectors
in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
In July 2008, more than 60 senior policy makers from agriculture
ministries, private seed companies, seed trade associations, and
regional trade blocs from 13 sub-Saharan African countries met
in Nairobi, Kenya and recommended ways to improve farmers’
access to seed of improved drought tolerant maize varieties
through specific policy actions to enhance the production,
release, and marketing of these varieties. They agreed with the
findings of the 2007 seed sector study.
Understanding the hurdles
The main findings were that investment capital requirements and
a shortage of qualified staff hinder the growth of small, local
seed companies that have emerged over the past decade, according
to Langyintuo. “The costs of setting up and running an office,
recruiting and retaining qualified personnel, and procuring and
operating production, processing, and storage facilities are
beyond what many local businesses can afford, and access to
operational credit is limited or nil,” he says.
Up to 60% of a seed company’s
operational budget goes into seed production. Seed companies,
therefore, need affordable credit over the mid-to-long term to
produce enough seed to meet farmers’ needs. Marketing seed is
also costly. “Most companies rely on third-party agents such as
agro-dealers, large retail stores, NGOs, or the government to
retail most of their seed,” says Langyintuo. “The majority of
the agro-dealers lack funds to purchase seed, and so must take
it on consignment, forcing companies to retrieve unsold seed at
cost. The dealers are normally not knowledgeable enough about
the seed they sell to promote it effectively, and some of them
have also been known to adulterate seed with mere grain.”
Other hurdles identified include cumbersome varietal release,
registration, and seed certification regulations, as well as a
weak producer base, slow access to the best germplasm,
uncompetitive prices in local grain markets, low adoption rates
of improved varieties, restrictions on cross-border trade in
seed, and poor infrastructure (such as bad roads and inadequate
storage facilities).
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Local
suppliers like this one are the main "marketing arm" of
small- and intermediate-scale maize seed companies in
eastern and southern Africa. |
Policy actions needed
To get farmers the seed they want will involve a range of
players in the maize seed sector and calls for specific policy
actions. Participants in the July 2008 meeting identified ways
in which governments and international centers like CIMMYT and
the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) can
assist and support current seed companies to improve their seed
outputs and profits.
“The government is supporting the maize seed sector through
initiatives such as increasing investments in agricultural
research and extension, training of agro-dealers, and developing
the National Seed Industry Policy,” confirms Kenya’s Assistant
Minister of Agriculture, Japheth Mbiuki.
“Seed companies would benefit from access to a wider range of
improved maize varieties, good seed production sites, affordable
inputs, and training in effective business practices,” adds
Langyintuo. CIMMYT normally distributes its experimental
varieties freely to everyone, but granting companies some degree
of exclusivity in their use would facilitate branding and
promote sales. This would have to be tailored to specific
country and company contexts, according to Langyintuo.
Maize seed without borders
No country is an island, and with increasing regional
integration of economies around the world, it makes sense that
the region should move as one in developing its maize seed
sector. Regional trade blocs such as the Common Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) are key. “Specific actions
and commitments by national governments include dedicating
increased funds (at least 10% of their national budgets) for
agricultural development and harmonization of regional seed
regulations," says Ambassador Nagla El-Hussainy, COMESA
Assistant Secretary General. "This will improve rates of variety
release, lower costs in dealing with regulatory authorities,
increase trade in seed of improved varieties and, ultimately,
adoption by farmers." In East Africa, for instance, the national
seed policies of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are at various
stages of development and are set to be harmonized soon.
"Effective trade and risk management strategies that buffer seed
supply within countries are needed to stabilize and increase
maize production in the region," says Marianne Bänziger, CIMMYT
Global Maize Program Director. "These will mitigate the impact
of drought and national production fluctuations, which are some
of the harsh realities that farmers and consumers face.”
“Where applicable, carrying out the distinctness, uniformity and
stability (DUS) tests alongside national performance trials
(NPT) could speed up varietal releases,” adds Langyintuo.
"Farmers’ awareness of the usefulness and availability of new
varieties can be raised through improved extension message
delivery, widespread demonstrations, and better retail
networks."
According to Richard Amoussou, an Assistant Secretary in the
Ministry of Agriculture in Benin: “The links between
(community-based) seed producers and seed companies should be
strengthened through contracts. This will ensure that quality
seed is produced and sold to seed companies, who must finally
distribute the seed to the farmers, thus improving their
access.”
“Streamlining the seed sector will directly benefit the
productivity and incomes of small-scale farmers and result in
more and more affordable food for consumers – significant in the
current global food crisis,” concludes Bänziger. She says this
is crucial, given the twin challenges of the global food price
crisis and more frequent droughts due to climate change. |
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