African crop breeding experts have begun a week-long meeting in Nairobi to discuss ways of tackling the issue of better and more available seed for smallholder farmers, organisers said on Tuesday.The meeting organised by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) brought together over 100 experts, including World Food Prize laureate, Gebesa Ejeta, to seek ways of meeting smallholder farmers need for high performing and high impact seed varieties. Speaking at the event, AGRAs director of seed program Joe Devries said their programs have so far supported the development of almost 400 new seed varieties and the commercialization of over 200.The challenge now is how to address the gap between the released varieties and the commercialized. If we can get this right well be able to make lasting impact on the lives of millions of smallholders in Africa, Devries told the meeting.AGRA president, Jane Karuku, said farmers in Africa have largely not benefited from improved seeds due to a lack of localized crop breeding and efficient, dependable seed delivery system. And so crop yields in most of Africa have remained one-third of those produced by farmers in other developing regions of the worlds. Good seed is not just the driving force behind good harvests and eliminating poverty and hunger, its the foundation for rapid economic growth, said Karuku.The first step towards farmers accessing simple science is ensuring that farmers have access to improved seeds. This has been a major challenge across Africa, with seed companies not able to meet the demand by farmers, resulting to farmer turning to their grains as seeds.AGRA said its own seed program has begun to address some of these challenges successfully with the majority of farmers targeted accessing the new seed reporting dramatic increases in their harvests. As a result of AGRAs support to many partners, an additional 40,000 MT per annum of hybrid seed, representing 1/3 of the commercially produced seed in Africa, is now reaching smallholder farmers. These seeds have been produced by 60 small, African-owned seed companies launched with capital and strengthened by AGRA - a 100 percent increase in the number of such companies.In terms of food production, this means an additional 4 million MT of staple crops per annum. AGRAs experts believe that the tipping point to food security with respect to improved seeds is 500,000 MT per annum of high yielding, improved crop varieties. World Food Prize laureate Gebesa Ejeta said the global food security is the biggest challenge that the world needs to address now and the science of plant breeding is a critical component in that agenda. Ejeta said in a country like Ethiopia, farming technology has hardly improved with farmers using outdated farming practices that do not increase their yields or impact on their livelihoods significantly. For farmers to improve their livelihoods and increase their income we need to see simple science available to people, like improved seeds. If we do not get our act together the continent will be left behind, he said.
