Chronicle Editor
Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE is among the seven Eastern and Southern Africa countries that have so far harmonised their national seed regulations with the regional seed trade harmonisation regulations.
The other Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) countries that have ratified their respective seed regulations with the Eastern and Southern Africa seed trade protocols are Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia.
“The harmonisation of seed laws under the Comesa Seed Harmonisation Implementation Plan (COMSHIP) was adopted by the Comesa Council of Ministers in 2014 as a strategy to trigger seed trade, which is low across the region and a cause for food insecurity,” said Comesa.
Presenting the status report during a two-day high level consultative workshop on the implementation of harmonised seed regulations in Eastern and Southern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya last week, Comesa seed expert Dr John Mukuka said the framework was intended to address lack of quality seed in the region, which has led to food insecurity.
“Within the agricultural sector, access to improved or quality seed by our 80 million small-holder farmers in the Comesa region is low at 23 percent,” he was quoted as saying.
“This has resulted in low productivity especially on cereals like maize, sorghum and pearl millet.”
Dr Mukuka noted that despite the Comesa countries having most of the global arable land, food production was not rising in tandem with population growth.
“The population in the Comesa countries is increasing at 2,3 percent while food production is at two percent, a situation that has brought about food insecurity to 130 million out of 600 million people in the region,” Dr Mukuka told the delegates who comprised seed experts from 16 Comesa member States.
COMSHIP is one of the components in the entire value-addition chain from agro-inputs to output markets and financial markets with potential to spur regional seed trade.
The other components that Comesa has lined up for harmonisation from 2019 are fertiliser standards, grades and standards for staple foods (maize, beans and rice); warehouse receipt system, implementation of the Regional Food Balance Sheet including Informal Cross Border Monitoring and Livestock Feed Sector.
Meanwhile, Comesa has developed seed labels and certificates to facilitate regional seed trade. It is hoped that 4,5 million Comesa seed labels and 2 500 certificates will be ready by the first quarter of 2019 for use by major seed companies in the region.
— @okazunga.
derick.khumalo