Farmers warned against buying fake seed

Factmore Dzobo Senior Reporter
FAKE seed maize is being sold at Bulawayo’s Renkini bus terminus and in some retail shops. The scandal was unearthed when a farmer from Umguza Rural District who declined to be named visited Chronicle offices this week with 10kg of fake seed maize.

The seed was packaged in a bag identical to those of a reputable seed company and the farmer said he bought the seed at Renkini bus terminus.

An agronomist said the danger with fake seed was that it could fail to germinate, was prone to diseases and could result in low yields.

The fake seed can be detected by a dye that stains the packaging. Farmers particularly from rural areas have fallen prey to dealers who are re-packaging fake seed maize in quantities of 2kg, 5kg and 10kg.

Investigations carried out by this paper this week revealed that some dealers were using bags identical to reputable seed companies in order to dupe farmers into buying.

The unscrupulous dealers also dye the seed in colours used by reputable seed houses.

DuPont Pioneer Seeds agronomist Tawanda Mangisi urged farmers to be wary of retailers and individuals selling fake seeds.

“We continue to advise farmers to be on the look-out for the ever growing threat of fake seed on the market. Farmers should desist from buying seed in the streets but should buy from reputable dealers,” said Mangisi. Another agronomist, Dumezweni Sibanda, has advised farmers to buy seed from reputable dealers and retail outlets. Recently the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) said it was stamping certified bags to alert buyers but said with technological advancement, unscrupulous retailers were able to imitate certification marks to dupe unsuspecting farmers.

Investigations revealed that diluting or colouring and counterfeiting can happen at many levels in the supply chain. The seed companies often sell seed in larger bags that are marked but some retail outlets are forced to re-package the seed in smaller bags to make the seed affordable to farmers.

This re-packaging creates an opportunity to adulterate the product.