Africa Guardian

*KAMPALA— *Over 52 seed companies, wholly African-led and owned have
convened in Kampala, Uganda to recognize and learn from their peers who
have attained the remarkable goal of producing and selling 10,000 metric
tons of seed per year.

The meeting started yesterday, and will end today(July 8, 2012). African
seed companies are key to food security because they have the local
knowledge and capacity to meet the seed needs of African smallholder
farmers. This meeting is dubbed the “10 K Seed Company convening.”

Of the 52, two – Maslaha Seed Company and Oromia Seed Enterprise – have
scaled this goal and are supplying farmers with quality certified seed of
staple crops – in Nigeria and Ethiopia, respectively. These companies
responded to AGRA’s challenge two years ago at the first such convening
held in Malawi.

“At AGRA, we believe that smallholder farmers can become the bedrock of
food security in Africa, provided they can access the essential ingredients
of modern agriculture such as quality seed of improved crop varieties,”
said AGRA President Jane Karuku.” Today, we salute all seed companies that
are working to make a difference.”

“We urge all farmers to embrace the improved seeds to enable us works
towards a food secure Africa. The Seed Companies should adhere to business
ethics and avail quality seeds of improved crop varieties to the farmers
while at the same time avoid the temptation to engage in dubious business
of dealing with fake seeds,” said Professor Zerubabel M. Nyiira, Minister
of State for Agriculture, Animal Industry & Fisheries, Uganda.

“With the mission of ensuring quality seeds to African smallholder farmers,
we have a dedicated arm of our program, Seed Production and Dissemination
for Africa (SEPA) that works with seed companies to provide necessary
support for them to meet the needs of the farmers,” said Joe DeVries,
Director, Program for Africa’s Seeds Systems (PASS).

Formed in 2006, Maslaha Seeds has grown in scale and capacity, from an
initial annual production of 600 tons of rice and maize to a current
production of more than 10,000 tons of seed of diverse crops including
high-yielding maize, sorghum, millet, and cowpea developed specifically for
Nigeria’s growing conditions.

“Thanks to our collaboration with AGRA’s seed program, we are closer to
fulfilling our promise to Nigeria’s farmers to help access certified seed
and get closer to making Nigeria Africa’s breadbasket,” said Ibrahim
Abdullahi, managing director of Maslaha Seeds.

Oromia Seed Enterprise came into business with both government and AGRA
funding into now a formidable enterprise in Ethiopia. , The enterprise has
scaled up to over 10,000 metric tons per year of quality seeds of improved
variety of maize, teff wheat and beans.

“We are very proud of support that AGRA has extended to us. Apart from
extending finances to us, we have benefited a lot from trainings and
technical support that has made us who we are today,” Kedir Biftu General
Manager Oromia Seed Enterprise.

In Uganda, two seed companies, Farm Inputs Care Centre (FICA) and Nalweyo
Seed Company (NASECO) had been struggling to reach an annual production of
2,000 tons. Fortunately, with AGRA support they both have managed to grow
their production to over 4,000 tons, have diversified their crops to
include beans, maize, sorghum and have gone regional; distributing seeds to
South Sudan, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Tanzania.

“Growth in the Seed Industry calls for high level of professionalism and
technical skills. Seed companies should be run as businesses with clear
focus and discipline coupled with adept financial management and great
marketing strategies,” said Dr. George Bigirwa, Associate Director of
AGRA’s PASS program.