Africa
April 29, 2006
Introduction
AFSTA, the African Seed Trade
Association, represents the seed industry in Africa and the
Indian Ocean islands. AFSTA now has 60 members in 30 countries.
It is a non-profit, non-political association with a mission to
promote development of seed industry and national seed
associations, which will facilitate farmers’ access to improved
varieties.
The 6th
Annual Congress held in Entebbe, Uganda, on March 28 – 31, 2006,
was officially opened by The Right Honorable Prime Minister,
Prof. Apolo Nsibambi, on behalf of the President of the Republic
of Uganda. He emphasized the key role played by seeds in
agricultural development and called upon all the seed
stakeholders to join hands in promoting the use of high quality
seeds in Africa.
This congress
2006 attracted 118 delegates from 31 countries. Delegates
included representatives from regional and international bodies
such as:
ASARECA – Association for Strengthening
Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa
AU – African Union
ISF – International Seed Federation
ISTA – International Seed Testing Association
OECD – Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
USAID – United States Agency for International Development
WASNET – West African Seed and Planting Material Network
Topics
The morning of the day of 28th March
2006 was reserved for a half-day ISTA facilitated regional
workshop on “how to install ISTA accreditation for governmental
and seed company testing laboratories”. The Secretary of ISTA,
Dr. Michael Muschick, facilitated the workshop and replied to
various questions from the participants. Interesting discussions
took place mainly about the practical aspects of the
accreditation of the seed laboratories and its importance.
The afternoon of the day of 28th March
was reserved for a half-day Cornell University facilitated
workshop on Seed of Development Program (SODP). The program
aimed at helping the small and medium seed companies in Africa
to improve their efficiency mainly from financial and managerial
point of view.
The first
topic of the Congress was about “Financing for private sector
investment in Africa with reference to agricultural sector in
general and with the seed sector in particular”. It was obvious
from the discussions that lack of financing is a serious
impediment for the development of the agricultural sector in
general and the seed sector in particular.
The second topic about “New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (NEPAD) - Brief on Comprehensive African
Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) and Aligning the Seed
Industry for its implementation” was meant to brief the seed
sector to understand this important program for the development
of agriculture in Africa. It highlighted the main components of
the program and its objectives, which can be summarized as the
betterment of the livelihood of African population through a
better agricultural productivity.
The third topic was about “Common Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA): Developing trade capacity
for market access”, which gave an overview of COMESA, its
progress made in trade capacity building for market access, and
its opportunities and challenges.
The fourth topic talked about the “importance and
interests of seed treatments for sustainable agriculture”. The
objectives of seed treatments, its evolution, operator and user
safety and its final impacts on the seed industry were
explained.
The fifth topic covered “Agricultural Investment
Opportunities in Uganda”, which permitted the participants to be
aware of the opportunities of investing in Uganda in various
sectors of activities and its achievements.
The sixth topic covered “Facilitating access to
publicly available germplasm to support the development of the
seed industry”. Constraints to the seed sector in general and to
access publicly available germplasm were mentioned together with
possible solutions. Participants debated among other issues the
establishment of the Foundation Seed Enterprise as a link
between the public plant breeding and the commercial seed
companies with a view to taking performing public varieties to
the hands of farmers.
The seventh
topic was “Challenges of the seed market in Africa for seed
companies: discussions and recommendations on the way forward”
during which a lively discussion took place so that the African
seed industry can face the challenges which include: variety
release, realistic demand, seed marketing, seed price, regional
seed trade barriers, plant variety protection and biotechnology.
The eighth and last topic dealt with the
coexistence “situation of harmonization of seed policy and
regulations, including biotechnology, in Africa”.
Representatives from the three sub-regions in Sub-Saharan Africa
i.e. Southern African Development Community (SADC), Eastern
Africa and Western Africa presented their achievements followed
by discussion panel during which efforts for coordination of the
actions amongst the organizations involved in the harmonization
process were reached so that they are more efficient.
All the papers of AFSTA Congress 2006 are
available on request at AFSTA Secretariat (afsta@afsta.org).
Capacity building and partnership in 2005
The creation and reinforcement of national seed
associations in Africa was among the priorities of AFSTA in 2005
in collaboration with various partners. With SCOSA (Sustainable
Commercialization of Seeds in Africa) program, training on
coexistence of Genetically Modified with Conventional seeds and
on Material Transfer Agreement were conducted in Nairobi, Kenya
in October 2005. This was followed by a dialog between the
private seed sector and representatives of International
Agricultural Research Centers of the CGIAR whose goals were to
inform the seed sector about the availability of germplasm
entrusted with those Centers. AFSTA also worked in partnership
with sub-regional and international organizations to implement
seed related projects, among others the harmonization of seed
legislation in the sub-regions. The production of statistical
database on the African seed industry has also been among the
priorities of AFSTA using its website
www.afsta.org to facilitate the collection of the data.
AFSTA objectives
Objectives for AFSTA continue to be the
organization of technical training related to seeds to build
capacity of its members in 2006/2007, among others strengthening
the knowledge of its membership about seed quality insurance
management, seed association management, seed marketing and
business plan. AFSTA will strive to increase its membership for
its financial stability. It will continue to actively support
the seed legislation harmonization process in the sub-regions.
New membership
New members approved by the General Assembly
include:
Ordinary members:
Mount Elgon Seeds – a private seed company,
Uganda
Riverwalks Seeds and Grains – a private seed company, South
Africa
National Seed Association of Burkina Faso (UNPSB), Burkina
Faso
Associate
member:
Sustainable Commercialization of Seed in
Africa (SCOSA), Kenya
Elections
The General
Assembly (GA) 2006 elected Mr. Enock Chikava (Malawi) and Mr.
Mr. Dominic Gitau (Kenya) to join the AFSTA Board.
The composition of AFSTA Board members for
2006/2007 elected by the General Assembly is therefore as
follows:
Mr. Mark
Sachs
President, South Africa
Mr. Marcel Kanungwe
Vice-President, Zambia
Mr. Raouf
Ghariani Past
President, Tunisia
Mr. Dominique
Gitau Member,
Kenya
Mr. Amadou M. Djigo
Member, Senegal
Mr. Enock
Chikava Member,
Malawi
Mr. François
Burgaud Associate
member, France
Mr. Alexis Ellicott
Associate
member, USA
Position papers
The General Assembly adopted three position
papers on Modern Biotechnology, on International Treaty on Plant
Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture of the FAO, and on
the Coexistence of Genetically Modified and Conventional seeds,
which are all available on request at AFSTA Secretariat and at
www.afsta.org.
Venue and date for AFSTA Congress 2007
The General Assembly confirmed that the seventh
AFSTA annual congress 2007 will be held in Livingstone, Zambia
form 27th to 30th March 2007.
Justin J. Rakotoarisaona
Secretary General of AFSTA
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