Agenda 10/30: Role of farmer-saved seeds

FIVE months ago, President Samia Suluhu Hassan flagged off ambitious agricultural transformation plan, dubbed ‘agenda 10/30’ whose initiative was to rally efforts of the public and private sectors to turn around the fortunes of thousands of people eking out a living from the agricultural value chain.

In quick analysis, it was aimed at attaining an impressive 10 per cent annual growth rate for the sector by the year 2030, since it is the major livelihood source of living for about 65 per cent Tanzanians.

This is because, scaling up extension services is one of the pillars in the ‘Agenda 10/30’ campaign. During the launch, Agriculture Minister Hussein Bashe said the current growth rate is a measly 2 per cent while the government’s five year development plan projects the growth at 5.7 per cent by 2025.

The government is optimistic that agri-business would help fight youth unemployment, help alleviate extreme poverty and contribute significantly in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

According to the minister, the sector currently contributes 28 per cent of the GDP. Key areas to help in driving this green transformational agenda will revolve around seed multiplication, agricultural funding, markets, irrigation farming, extension services, research and development, strategic food and cash crops and technology and innovation.

The Tanzanian seed system has grown over the years as observed from the increase in seed enterprises, improved seed support services and overall increased volumes of certified seed. There are five identified dominant seed systems in Tanzania which include farmer-saved, public–private (local seed businesses), public (government driven), private international and private local.

The farmer-saved and public seed system accounts for the majority of seed volume while the private sector companies and public seed system contribute the majority of EGS.

According to statistics, the informal seed system is estimated at about 75 per cent of the seed market share in Tanzania.

As the government gears up to implement the ‘Agenda 10/30’, how the farmer-saved seeds drive the implementation of the plan?

Speaking in an interview with the Daily News, yesterday, Chairman of the National Network of Small-Scale Farmers Groups in Tanzania (MVIWATA), Mr Apolo Chamwela, argued: “seed means a source of food.” Mr Chamwela elaborated that farmer-saved seeds guarantee food security because process of producing them is owned by farmers themselves.

“The farmer-managed seeds have great contribution to agricultural production since they are fit for our environment, they are tolerant and not easily destroyed by pests,” he stated.

Mr Chamwela pointed out that for him, being one of farmers, did not see huge difference between certified and farmer-managed seeds in terms of production. He however said the farmer-saved seeds face distribution challenge since the law does not allow distribution beyond the ward level.

“We would prefer that these seeds be supplied beyond ward level to district as well as regional level. I personally once bought farmersaved seeds in Mbeya and sent them to Kiteto, Manyara region, but still they performed well,” he noted.

He further advised that there should be more researches on farmer-saved seeds for more improvements. In the last decades, developing countries, often supported by international funders and initiatives, have made large efforts to develop nationwide seed sectors in which semi-public and private enterprises play a central role.

These efforts have resulted in an increasing use of modern crop varieties, and a larger proportion of land covered by certified quality seed.

Between the 1960s and 2000s, more than 8,000 modern varieties of 11 crops were released by more than 400 public breeding programmes and seed boards in over 100 countries. However, the rate of release and adoption of modern varieties as well as productivity gains varied considerably across time, crops and regions.

In Asia, the proportion of land planted with modern varieties of rice increased from 10 per cent in the 1960s to 70 per cent in the 1990s. In the Middle East and North Africa, it was wheat that made a dramatic increase in area planted to modern varieties, growing from less than 5 per cent in the 1960s to around 50 per cent in the 1990s (1).

However, the achievements of modern plant breeding and commercial seed sector development will not easily reach all farmers in the next decades.

Farmers’ own production and exchange of seed will continue to be important in the foreseeable future. For instance, The formal sector provides less than 5 per cent of the seeds used to produce traditional staple crops in West Africa (sorghum, millet, cowpea), in spite of decades of breeding work.

It provides less than 10 per cent of the rice in Nepal, where it is a major crop. In Ethiopia and Syria, important wheat-growing areas, wheat production depends from 80 to 90 per cent on informal seed sources.