Africa Economy: African crop breeding experts meet in Kenya over seed varieties
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E-mail Xinhua, July 24, 2012
Africa Economy: African crop breeding experts meet in Kenya over seed varieties
by Njoroge Kaburo
NAIROBI, July 24 (Xinhua) -- African crop breeding experts have begun a week-long meeting in Nairobi discuss ways of tackling issue of better and more available seed for stallholder farmers, organizers said on Tuesday.
The meeting organized by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) brought together over 100 experts including World Food Prize laureate Gebesa Ejeta to seek ways of meeting smallholder farmers' need for high performing and high impact seed varieties.
Speaking at the event, AGRA's director of seed program Joe Devries said AGRA programs have so far supported the development of almost 400 new seed varieties and the commercialization of over 200.
"The challenge now is how to address the gap between the released varieties and the commercialized. If we can get this right we'll be able to make lasting impact on the lives of millions of smallholders in Africa," Devries told the meeting.
In May, Kenya and AGRA inked a deal for a 65 million U.S. dollar small holder farmers financing program to provide a credit line to banks in Kenya under the Program for Rural Outreach of Financial Innovations and Technologies (PROFIT) which will be administered by AGRA.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance Joseph Kinyua said then that the government will partner with AGRA to upscale an existing small holder financing program to the tune of 65 million dollars that targets at least 150,000 beneficiaries.
The source of the funds is the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) but Kinyua added that the previous program was a risk sharing facility worth 5 million dollars which leveraged total funding of 50 million dollars and has so far benefited approximately 49,000 subsistence farmers.
The Treasury official said that of the total amount, 50 million dollars will be provided for onward lending by banks in Kenya, while 7 million dollars will be given to micro finance institutions in order to assist them expand their rural lending portfolios.
AGRA President Jane Karuku said farmers in Africa have largely not benefited from improved seeds due to a lack of localized crop breeding and efficient, dependable seed delivery system.
"And so crop yields in most of Africa have remained one-third of those produced by farmers in other developing regions of the worlds. Good seed is not just the driving force behind good harvests and eliminating poverty and hunger, it's the foundation for rapid economic growth," said Karuku.
AGRA hopes the project will assist Kenya's efforts to transform itself from a food importer to one which exports in order to increase food security in the region.
According to the ministry of agriculture over 70 percent of Kenyans derive their livelihood from agriculture but most of them produce for consumption.
The first step towards farmers accessing simple science is ensuring that farmers have access to improved seeds.
This has been a major challenge across Africa, with seed companies not able to meet the demand by farmers, resulting to farmer turning to their grains as seeds.
AGRA said its own seed program has begun to address some of these challenges successfully with the majority of farmers targeted accessing the new seed reporting dramatic increases in their harvests.
As a result of AGRA's support to many partners, an additional 40,000 MT per annum of hybrid seed, representing 1/3 of the commercially produced seed in Africa, is now reaching smallholder farmers.
These seeds have been produced by 60 small, African-owned seed companies launched with capital and strengthened by AGRA - a 100 percent increase in the number of such companies.
In terms of food production, this means an additional 4 million MT of staple crops per annum. AGRA's experts believe that the tipping point to food security with respect to improved seeds is 500,000 MT per annum of high yielding, improved crop varieties.
World Food Prize laureate Gebesa Ejeta said the global food security is the biggest challenge that the world needs to address now and the science of plant breeding is a critical component in that agenda.
Ejeta said in a country like Ethiopia, farming technology has hardly improved with farmers using outdated farming practices that do not increase their yields or impact on their livelihoods significantly.
"For farmers to improve their livelihoods and increase their income we need to see simple science available to people, like improved seeds. If we do not get our act together the continent will be left behind," he said. Enditem
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