Busani Bafana
LUSAKA, Zambia (PAMACC News) - Food security begins with good seed,
which has become the farmers' Holy Grail. African smallholder farmers prioritise
how they select, save and use seed because it determine the quality and quantity
of their harvest, especially now with a changing farming environment.
But farmers' good judgement is
never foolproof against fake seed, a growing nightmare for farmers and a threat
to the seed industry which each year loses millions of dollars in potential
sales.
With farmers relying on their
crops for food and income, counterfeit seeds spell disaster. The Alliance for a
Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has initiated a project using scratch card
technology to counteract the distribution of fake seeds to farmers.
The Coin Scratch Counterfeit Seed
Programme to be piloted by AGRA this year will use digital technology to
validate the authenticity of seeds that farmers buy. This will see the use of
coded seed packs with accompanying scratch cards that farmers can use to prove
the seed they have bought are real. Scratch cards are thin cards with a plastic
coating on one side which hides a Pin code that can be revealed by scratching
off the covering. Scratch cards are in use gambling, phone calling, prepaid
services and internet.
"Fake seeds are a major
issue for farmers in Africa," said George Bigirwa, AGRA seed division
Regional Head for East and Southern Africa. "Concerted efforts are needed
to address because farmers and the seed industry are losing out in terms of
harvest and business because of counterfeit seed which most often is sold to
desperate farmers. We have sought a digital solution to curbing fake seed
through a project we are piloting in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania."
Bigirwa said once the pilot
project process successful the programme will be rolled out throughout African
continent.
"The impact of fake seed on
farmers is devastating," said Ed Mabaya, assistant director of
Cornell University’s International Institute for Food, Agriculture and
Development (CIIFAD) and head of the African Seed Access Index (TASAI) project. "In
the short term, a farmer who plants fake seed can lose an entire crop for
that season. Farmers only notice the problem when the crop is growing at
which point it is too late to replant. The long-term impact of fake seed
is that farmers lose confidence in improved seed and they revert back to
recycling seed from the previous season--resulting in lower yields."
(TASAI), a collaborative initiative between Market
Matters Inc., Cornell International Institute for Food and Agricultural
Development and the Emerging Markets Programme was launched in March 2015 to encourage
vibrant seed sector for smallholder farmers in Africa. The initiative dedicated
solely to monitoring the state of Africa’s rapidly evolving seed sector—issued
detailed scorecards on seed development and distribution in Kenya, Uganda,
South Africa and Zimbabwe, with a focus on increasing choices for smallholder
farmers.
“We’ve known for
a long time that a key reason yields on African farms lag far behind even those
in other developing countries is that African farmers often lack access to
improved varieties of staple crops such as maize, cowpea and sorghum,” said “We
think that by tracking indicators along the seed delivery chain—like the number
of crop breeders, varieties released, industry competitiveness, availability of
seed in small packages, and quality of the seed policy framework—investors and
policymakers can target choke points that are impeding the flow of seeds to
smallholder farmers.”
The
African Seed Traders Association (AFSTA), says Africa' agriculture sector is lagging
behind as a result of the low uptake and use of certified seeds. The global
seed business is worth about US$30 billion and sub-Saharan Africa has a three percent
share is only a paltry US$800 million.
Africa's seed industry suffer from a number of constraints including a highly
fragmented seed system, inconsistent policies, standards, regulations and
procedures, high costs for registering new varieties and an inadequate
infrastructure to support the development of the seed industry.
A
February 2015 publication by CTA, Seed systems, Science and Policy
in East and Central Africa, says Africa needs to develop and
integrate its various seed systems and
improve seed quality if it is to increase its present contribution to
the global seed trade.
“African
farmers need quality seeds. And Africa needs to increase its share of the
global seed trade,” said Judith Francis, CTA Senior Programme Coordinator,
Science & Technology Policy, who coordinated the publication. “Neither goal
can be achieved if the policies, regulations and quality assurance schemes are
not in place and properly enforced. African countries and scientists also need
the infrastructure, such as laboratories, to move this sector forward.”
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