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Nigeria touted to become world’s bread basket

By BusinessNews Staff on May 19, 2014

A new report released at the Grow Africa Investment Forum held during the just-concluded World Economic Forum on Africa (WEFA) has disclosed that seed companies indigenous to Africa, that are participating in a programme to offer high-yield crop varieties to smallholder farmers across the continent, have collectively become the largest seed producers in sub-Saharan Africa.

This is also as Managing Director, Maslaha Seeds, Ibrahim Abdullahi, one of the largest seed producers in the region, has said Nigeria could be the number one feeder of the world in the nearest future, but only if the farms are fed with high quality seeds.

Explaining this, Abdullahi said, “Nigeria has the potential to become one of the world’s great breadbaskets,”, adding that “giving our farmers access to certified seed for high-yield crop varieties is crucial to fulfilling that promise.”

The analysis by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) revealed at the meeting that 80 small-to medium-size African seed companies in 16 countries are currently on track to produce over 80,000 metric tons of professionally certified seeds this year.

An example of one of such companies is Maslaha Seeds in Nigeria, which at inception in 2006 produced only about 600 tons of seed, mostly for high-yield rice, such as the popular “New Rice for Africa” (NERICA) developed by the Africa Rice Centre – and for hybrid maize.

But it worked with AGRA’s Programme for Africa’s Seed Systems (PASS) and other partners to rapidly expand and now produces thousands of tonnes of seed each year for a wide menu of crop varieties, including high-yield sorghum, millet, and cowpea developed specifically for Nigeria’s growing conditions.

AGRA’s Director of PASS, Dr. Joe DeVries, said, “The rapid growth of local seed companies over a very short time period is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit percolating in communities across Africa and to the pent-up demand among Africa’s smallholder farmers for improved, high-yield crop varieties,”

According to the report, “Planting the Seeds of a Green Revolution in Africa,” PASS started out working with a handful of companies that together produced about 2,000 metric tons of seed.

A statement from AGRA disclosed that PASS was launched in 2007 to inject new energy into Africa’s commercial seed sector, which was failing to provide African farmers with a steady supply of locally adapted, improved crop varieties.

“Today, seven years later, it is partnering with some 80 companies across the continent that produce professionally certified seed for an array of African staple crops including maize, cassava, millet, rice, sorghum, beans, sweet potato, cowpea, groundnut, soybean and pigeon pea. These companies are focusing on varieties “carefully selected by local crop breeders for their compatibility with specific African agricultural environments.”

The stagnant state of commercial seed production often is cited as a key reason why yields per hectare in Africa for staple crops like maize are up to 80 per cent below what farmers outside of Africa achieve.

There already are indications that increasing access to the improved seed is helping farmers coax far more food out of the same amount of land. A 2013 survey of farmers in nine countries found that the majority of farmers who have invested in improved crop varieties have seen yields rise by 50 to 100 per cent.

74 per cent of farmers surveyed in Nigeria, 69 per cent in Kenya, and 79 per cent in Mozambique said improved maize varieties had allowed them to double the amount of maize harvested per hectare. Meanwhile, 79 per cent of farmers surveyed in Ghana reported doubling rice yields, and 85 per cent of farmers surveyed in Uganda reported doubling yields from cowpea.

The analysis of AGRA’s seed program notes that publicly funded crop breeding programmes supported by AGRA since 2007 have released 464 new varieties of 15 important crop species developed for specific African climates and soils. It has also ensured that many breeders employed at a national level work collaboratively with international breeders from the CGIAR Consortium who provide breeding stock and, sometimes, finished varieties.

The report found that agro-dealers supported by AGRA now provide smallholder farmers in 16 countries with 400,000 metric tons of seed and one million metric tons of fertilisers each year.

The report also identified challenges to ensuring that the majority of smallholder farmers in Africa have access to improved crop varieties, and to the fertilisers and other inputs required to achieve their full yield potential.

“For example, national governments need to free up the supply of foundation seed developed by their public-sector breeding programs and offer tax incentives to encourage investments in processing equipment, irrigation technology, and other seed production infrastructure,” it noted, while also pointing out that local seed companies need more access to investment capital, and farmers need to learn more about the benefits of investing in quality seed of superior varieties.

The discussion at WEFA of the benefits gained from investments in local seed production came at a time many people inside and outside of Africa see agriculture as the engine that can drive economic growth across the continent.

Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwumi Adesina, believes agriculture has the potential to become Nigeria’s “new oil” and has embarked on an ambitious program to dramatically increase food production in Africa’s largest economy.

“When we talk about a unique Green Revolution for Africa, we are talking about something that is indeed revolutionary, which is the development of a modern, highly productive agriculture sector that remains focused on small, family farms,” AGRA President, Jane Karuku, said.

“Our seed program has shown that, if given access to the essential ingredients of modern agriculture, smallholder farmers in Africa can rapidly increase food production and become the bedrock of food security for the continent,” Karuku added.

[Daily Independent]

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