CONSULATIVE MEETINGS WITH WA AND SADC REGIONAL SEED PROGRAMS

Author: Edwin Odihambo

Target: Post to East Africa Seed Network; email to Brian and Luis

To learn from other regional seed harmonization efforts across the continent, Africa Lead and USAID
East Africa recently held a consultative meeting with USAID funded efforts to harmonize seed policy in
Southern Africa and West Africa.

The purpose of the calls with SADC and West Africa (http://www.coraf.org/wasp2013/?lang=en)
Regional Seed Programs focused on sharing lessons learned on the success, progress and challenges of
implementation of regional policy support programs focusing on the seed sector.

Highlights / findings from other regional seed harmonization efforts

Below are some of the highlights from the discussions that are beneficial to the seed sector stakeholders
in the COMESA region. We welcome thoughts, input, and observations on these points and other areas
of interest to the group.

Highlights /

1. Seed catalogue / status - ECOWAS, SADC and COMESA all have established seed catalogues.
SADC has 23 varieties registered (http://sadcseedcentre.org/index.php/catalog or
http://sadcseedcentre.com/). COMESA has 24 varieties registered. SADC seed companies are
not paying any fees to register their varieties as opposed to COMESA, where companies are
required to pay 350 USD and 200 USD as annual fee . In west Africa, specific countries like
Ghana have developed procedure and launched and published catalogue of crop varieties
released to paving way for the Varieties Released to be officially published in the ECOWAS
document. The Catalogue, has been developed in response to Article 9 of the ECOWAS UEMOA
CILSS Regulation which stipulates that a West African Catalogue of plant species and varieties
be established for more effective management of seed quality control and certification in the
member states. It states further that WACPSV shall contain all registered varieties in member
states which have been listed in their National Catalogues.

While there is no significant difference on the number of varieties listed, COMESA may consider
removal of registration fee considering that the SADC seed catalogue has only been in existence
for a very short time and has almost the same number of varieties. SADC sends regular (online)
notifications to the National Seed Authorities, National Seed Associations and Seed Companies
on the variety release or registration on the catalogue.

2. Grant programs - SADC seed program has a grant program that supports seed companies to Commented [t1]: Is there a link to details about the grant
program?
open up markets or export their seed beyond their countries. The grant is used for capacity
building and marketing support for the seed companies to incentivize them to venture into the Commented [EO2R1]: I cant get link to this information. Lets
us the program links
export market. The grant program has been very vital for strategic partnerships and for testing
the system. Unlike SADC, COMESA does not have a grant facility and currently lack a program or
 mechanism for direct support to seed companies. COMESA should consider providing marketing
and capacity building support to strategic local companies to enable them to access export
market. From our discussion, it was not mentioned whether WA has a grant mechanism.

3. Online Network / Platform - SADC has an online platform for network but which has not been Commented [t3]: Need the links to these sites.
fully utilized to facilitate networking. On the other hand, the West Africa seed program has a Commented [EO4R3]: Lets use program links. He mentioned
discussion and online platform that is used for informing and marketing (www.WASIX.com). the link during our discussion but I didnt not capture it well

They have a world wide electronic phones to discuss issues affecting seed industries.

4. Seed Testing - To facilitate cross border trade SADC seed program have facilitate National Seed
Authorities to assign to the seed companies to conduct seed testing and facilitated trade by
large companies through subsidiaries. Seed testing by qualified seed companies leverage on the
capacity or facilities by large seed companies; enable smaller companies to access testing
services and speed up the seed testing and certification process. Working with larger seed
companies to build partnerships and franchise across the border is proving to be an effective
way of seed trade and distribution across the border because of the use of homegrown and local
companies with wider acceptance.

5. Regional Seed Taskforce / Efforts - To facilitate implementation of regional policy, the West Commented [t5]: What are the comparable efforts in West
Africa?
Africa seed program, have task force that follow up on specific challenges; conduct country level
coaching on how to implement ECOWAS seed regulations; developed country specific action Commented [EO6R5]: This is for WA, we did not have a similar
arrangement mentioned for SADC
plans; formed national seed committees with two private sector and public sector focal persons;
Commented [t7]: Need to be specific with the name of the
and developed protocol that clarifies requirements for cross border seed trade. In addition the program
WA program has special advocacy mechanism to reach out border officials. The program also
works closely with ECOWAS unit for customs officials; sponsored radio programs on seed for
awareness creation; and have special advocacy mechanism that targets border officials. While
West Africa seed program have supported the establishment and capacity building of regional
and national seed committees to coordinate the implementation of the regional seed policy, at
the national level COMESA works directly with the local focal point person and its not clear
whether there is a fully functional national committee with a clear TOR and to spearhead
domestication of the regional policy.

6. National and Regional alliances West Africa seed program have also established a very strong
national and regional seed alliance that include non-traditional partners like banks, customs
officials and transporters. Likewise SADC program have a rapid response team (task committee)
that follow up and ensure that specific actions or challenges are followed up and conclusively
addressed.

7. Bilateral and National Government Coordination and Discussion Platforms West Africa has a Commented [t8]: Anything from SA?
consortium of partners coordinated by ECOWAS and hold bi-lateral or country level meetings Commented [EO9R8]: Nothing was mentioned for SADC on
with key stakeholders (NSA, MOA, NSTA) to discuss and find solutions to country level coordination

challenges. This has proved to be very important in addressing specific barrier and unlocking
specific constraints. COMESA should consider facilitating national level dialogues and action
 planning and forming national coalitions to implement action plans especially in countries with
limited progress on the implementation of COMSHIP.

Thus, both SADC and WA have effective implementation, coordination structures and accountability
and follow up mechanisms that have greatly contributed to their progress.

8. Capacity Building for national seed institutions - A strong national seed authority and national
seed traders association are not only key for regulation, certification, advocacy but also for
domestication and operationalization of the regional policy. SADC and WA seed program
provide capacity development for the national seed authorities on a number of areas including
training and, establishment of SADC seed center, and the accreditation scheme to enable them
to effectiveness support domestication of the regional policy and seed sector development.
COMESA should scale up its capacity building and facilitation support to weaker NSAs.

Take aways / next steps for Africa Lead and EA Seed Network

As the facilitator of the East Africa Seed Network on this collaboration platform, were committed to
sharing information and providing a venue for conversation and resources to help all parties advance
the East Africa regional seed trade efforts.

From these knowledge sharing calls with other regional efforts weve taken on the task to establish a
resource page for all participants of the East Africa Seed Network.

Weve added this resource page to the group where you can access a range of resources from across the Commented [t10]: We will add the link to the page upon
completion of the page and the finalization of this post.
continent. Additionally, weve added links to network participants websites. Please send us additional
content youd like seen included on this page.