formal seed systems

This report by the Global Network For The Right To Food And Nutrition concludes that transnational corporations are monopolizing control over seeds with dire consequences for human rights and biodiversity. Increasingly, seed and agrochemical businesses seek to privatize, monopolize and control seeds by patenting and commodifying this very source of life. Meanwhile, peasant and indigenous communities, who have been the developers and guardians of seeds for millennia, are finding their rights to save, use, exchange and sell seeds overshadowed by a corporate agenda that prioritizes profit over human rights and the sustainable maintenance of nature. »

This article elaborates on the importance of informal seed markets for African family farmers. Using a comprehensive data set with 9660 observations across six countries and covering 40 crops, the authors show that farmers access 90.2 % of their seed from informal systems with 50.9 % of that deriving from local markets. However, current investments are mostly geared towards formal markets instead of informal ones, while the informal sector remains the core for seed acquisition in Africa. »

The report by The African Centre for Biosafety (ACB), describes how the seed industry in sub-Saharan Africa, far from being a homogenous bloc, is comprised of several layers. These include the largest multinational companies; a number of large companies from Europe and Asia, many of whom specialise in vegetable crops; and a group of former national seed companies from eastern and southern Africa. Joining these established players is a plethora of emerging African seed companies. »

This report is an outcome of a Seed Security Assessment (SSA) conducted in West Nile sub-region in March 2015. The assessment, which was commissioned by the Integrated Seed Sector Development (ISSD) Uganda, was necessitated by the need to fully understand the local community’s perspectives on seed security and how the influx of refugees in the sub-region affects seed demand and supply. »

This article reveals that the evolution of seed policies and regulatory frameworks in Kenya since independence exposes a continuous support for the formal seed sector while support given to the informal sector has merely been intended to transform it into formal. The threats of climate change and rising food prices have stirred renewed attention for seed and food security in Africa, inviting new thinking on the role of seed sector development in coping with these concerns. »

In July 2014, a regional dialogue on “Strengthening African Seed Systems: Technical, Economic and Policy Challenges” took place in Nairobi, hosted by Future Agricultures and the Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development. The workshop aimed to examine the institutional, social and political dimensions of getting seed technologies into use and to highlight the challenges of increasing access to improved seeds for poor farmers through both formal and informal channels. This blog highlights lessons learned from the event, such as the need for re-framing of public policy so that it opens up opportunities for donors, civil society, researchers and farmers to investment in plural seed sector development. »