Busani Bafana

"Opening the borders for seed will not make the farmers’ situation better because there are many things to consider" - Cecilia Makota. Credit: Zahira Kharsany/IPS

MAPUTO, Mozambique (IPS) – Eighty-year-old Cecilia Makota is blessed amongst women. She is one of the few in her district who can afford seeds from a stockist in Lusaka.

While seed are increasingly being subsidised by governments in southern Africa, farmers still grapple with issues of buying seed at affordable prices.

“The seed and fertiliser support programme in my country has been abused and people are getting poorer and poorer since that programme started because at times people cannot access the seed,” Makota, a Zambian small holder farmer said.

But the situation could soon change with plans to harmonise seed laws within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

SADC is a big market for seed. According to the International Monetary Fund it has a population of more than 240 million and a GDP of 487 billion dollars. However, fragmented seed laws have been cited as a limiting factor in the movement of agricultural inputs within the region.

Africa, unlike other developing countries, has not benefitted from the Green Revolution – where seed was widely distributed across Asia in the 1960s. Asia had been able to develop and produce of a variety of better seed. Despite its size, Africa’s seed trade amounts to less than 2% of the global seed trade.

Rural farmers, Makota said, should be innovative in raising money to buy seeds and other inputs because the aim was to ensure that they also had access to indigenous seed varieties.

“Opening the borders for seed will not make the farmers’ situation better because there are many things to consider,” she said.
She said seed prices had to be competitive to ensure imported seed is affordable.

“And farmers cannot afford (it) as they are used to their gankata – an indigenous maize seed which they have used for donkey years and are prospering with it.
I support (the use of this seed) because they eat, enjoy and sell it among each other. The imported seed may not be a practicable idea due to costs and people may not afford it.”

SADC needs to urgently harmonise laws to facilitate trade and farmers’ access to seeds, a strategic input in agricultural production and food security, said biotechnology expert, Dr. Wynand van der Walt.

He said SADC was losing potential revenue from trade in seeds because of inconsistent policies. While there are no latest figures, the seed requirements for SADC generally vary from 10 percent to 50 percent.

“Some SADC states continue to suffer from food insecurity,” said Van der Walt. He added that: “Seeds are the biological starting point in the food and feed production chain. In rural economies there can be no food security without stable seed security.”

Van der Walt – a resource person for a project to harmonise seed policies being coordinated by FANRPAN – said efforts to harmonise seed laws have been ongoing for over 10 years. A SADC Seed Security Network was established to drive this process but it has since become inoperative.

Only in May 2009 did SADC make official a pledge to harmonise seed laws. This document still has to be signed by all 15 member states.

However, lobby group, GRAIN Africa is not convinced that the harmonisation of seed laws is in the interest of the African farmers. There is increased informal cross border trading of seed and food between SADC countries,

“On this level, the lack of seed policies makes it possible to exchange (seed), enhancing food security.” Elfrieda Pschorn-Strauss, programme officer for GRAIN Africa said.
“Seed policies have become an issue because the private sector wants to control the movement and sale of seeds, protect and expand their market. The private sector aims to monopolise the market by lobbying the government to regulate and restrict the informal sector.”

Dr. Isaac Minde, principal scientist, at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics said that harmonisation of seed laws would reduce transaction costs and the cost of movement of seed from one country to the other.

“Farmers are likely to get good varieties that are developed not in their country necessarily but even across borders so there is increased choice and this will provide an opportunity for increased productivity for farmers and increased incomes,” said Minde.

“Harmonisation will not make farmers forgo their rights to indigenous seeds. I cannot imagine in any way how farmers will be disadvantaged by this as they will benefit from increased choice and increasing the flow of seed will lead to low prices per unit,” Minde said.