EAC’s new bill set to improve seed trade

Arusha. Production and trade in certified seeds in East Africa will get a boost once a new legislation is enacted.

The Bill is currently being finalized by legal drafters before it is tabled in the regional august House for enactment. “The overall goal is to improve access of farmers to improved seeds,” said Mr Fahari Marwa, the principal agricultural economist with the East African Community (EAC).

He revealed this last Friday during a virtual workshop on new guidelines by the African Union (AU) on seed regulatory framework in the continent.

Drafting of the EAC Seed and Plant Varieties Bill dates back to June 2018 when technical and legal experts convened for the purpose.

The draft bill was adopted in December 2018 and was brought to the EAC Council of Ministers for consideration a year later.

Ever since, the legal document has been forwarded to the EAC Sectoral Council of Legal and Judicial Affairs for finalization.

The objective of the Bill is to promote production and trade in certified seed “within the Community and with other trading partners”.

The proposed law will open room for the implementation of the harmonized procedures for plant variety registration.

This will see improved seed certification, phytosanitary measures on seeds, import and export documentation and plant variety protection systems. According to Mr Marwa, the new legislation is set to be approved by the Council of Ministers in November this year. It will later be forwarded to the East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) for enactment as ‘EAC Seed Act’.

Cooperation seed multiplication and distribution is one of the hallmarks of the EAC Treaty in a bid to attain food and nutrition security.

The Webinar was organized by the Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers Forum (Esaff), a regional lobby based in Morogoro.

Also roped in is the Nairobi-based Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (Afsa) which has aligned itself with the small farmers in the continent.

Discussions centred on the farmer managed seed systems, an approach which gives small farmers more leverage in seed production, distribution and processing.

“The purpose was to stimulate policy support for farmer managed seed systems,” said Mr Emmanuel Justine, a programme manager with Esaff. Speakers at the meeting defended the informal seed system, saying it has continued to benefit small farmers because the seeds are sourced locally.

They cited a recent research which confirmed that 90 percent of farmers in Africa rely on seeds from an ‘informal’ farmer managed seed system. “Farmers mainly source their seeds locally, from their own stocks of saved seeds and from their local markets,” said Ms Anne Maina from the Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya.

She said the modern seed systems led by the Green Revolution narrative was not entirely beneficial to the ordinary farmers in Africa.

“Commercialisation restricts the age-old practices of African farmers to freely save, use, share and sell seeds,” she observed.

Esaff chairperson Hakim Baliraine said the informal system was responsible for 85 percent of seeds planted across Africa.

He called on the AU to ensure that seed processes on the continent are driven by “peasant collectives” and not by the seed industry alone.