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By Shem Oirere
The ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Area (Afcfta), a free trade agreement between the 55 countries of the African Union, has triggered fresh attempts by several countries in the continent to have in place conducive trade infrastructure systems such as metrology, standardization, accreditation, and quality management with the seed industry being among the top sectors in this endeavor.
At least 17 African countries recently agreed to take a notch higher the significant progress in the harmonizing of seed industry standards beyond the regional economic community level by committing to address constraints working against efforts to match industry practices such as lack of funding, poor coordination among governments and diminishing role of the private sector in strengthening of regional trade.
During the March 2025 African Seed Trade Association (AFSTA) Congress held in Kigali, Rwanda, the 17 countries, subscribing to three different regional organizations, agreed to synchronize their seed sector rules and regulations to ensure availability and accessibility of the planting material for food and nutritional security.
The countries are members of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional political and economic union of 12 countries of West Africa, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), which focuses on harmonizing and integrating economic space in West Africa, and the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), a group of African countries in the Sahel region that address food security, drought, and desertification.
Each of the three regional organizations had previously harmonized their seed sector rules and regulations and now the Member States in each of these regional groups is working at having them matched.
For instance, ECOWAS had in May 2008 passed Regulation C/REG.4/05/2008 to harmonize the rules governing quality control, certification and marketing of plant seeds and agricultural plants in the 15 Member States of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
Although not fully implemented due to various reasons such as lack of political goodwill, the regulation intended to ensure the harmonization of the seed industry rules and regulations of these 15 countries supports the local production of quality seeds, trade in seeds amongst ECOWAS States through elimination of trade barriers, timely and convenient access by farmers to quality seeds as well as “create a climate propitious for private investment in the seed industry” according to a ECOWAS. The regulation is also meant to “widen the choice of the seeds available to farmers and promote partnership between the public and private sectors.”
Eight of the ECOWAS members including Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo, have also subscribed to the UEMOA and have in the past ratified Regulation No. 003/2009/CM/UEMOA, of March 27, 2009, harmonizing the rules governing quality control, certification and marketing of plant seeds and seedlings within the organization.
“This harmonization aims to determine the origin of seeds of varieties of species plants and plants listed in the Catalog of Plant Species and Varieties of Union as defined in Article 9 of these Regulations and to guarantee their good quality,” the regulation says.
Elsewhere, 13 other countries, including Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Cape Verde, some, which are either members of ECOWAS or UEMOA, have also teamed up under the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) that came up with the CILSS Framework Convention on plant seeds and the regional consultation framework of March 2006.
Some of the provisions in the Convention stipulates that “all distributed and commercialized seeds must be certified that a national catalogue must be created and that alignment will create a regional framework for cooperation.”
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has been credited for helping in organizing the private sector in the CILSS Member States into cooperatives, economic interest groups, networks of Agro-businesses to enhance seed research and expand the market according to the UN agency.
Furthermore, the French government, which colonized eight of the 13 CILSS Member States, provided funding in 2003 for the alignment of the former colonies, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire (formerly Ivory Coast), Benin and Niger, in UEMOA, which in 2005 expanded to the CILSS.
And now, the ECOWAS, UEMOA and CILSS member countries, have committed themselves to synchronize the three regional harmonized seed sector rules and regulations into a single document to promote not only food and nutrition security but also seed trade among themselves as they enhance their competitiveness in the larger AfCFTA), which targets the creation of a single market, which is estimated to include 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion.
“The ECOWAS, UEMOA and CILSS have agreed to harmonize the rules governing quality control, certification and marketing of plant seeds and seedlings, in the region of their jurisdiction to ensure the planting material remains available and accessible for food and nutritional security of populations and also ease of implementation of shared regional agricultural policies,” a statement by ECOWAS at this year’s AFSTA Congress said.
The first shared agricultural policy is the Economic Community of West Africa Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP), unveiled in 2005 by ECOWAS to catalyze productivity and competitiveness of West African agriculture, implement an agriculture-driven trade
regime within West Africa and pursue a common approach to trade in agricultural products with non-ECOWAS countries.
UEMOA countries on the other hand launched in 2001 a common agricultural policy PAU (la Politique Agricole de l'UEMOA in French) to boost efforts at achieving food security through increased production and reducing reliance on food imports as well addressing poverty among rural populations in UEMOA countries.
Finally, the strategic framework for sustainable food security in the fight against poverty (CSSA), a regional agricultural policy among CILSS members, was unveiled in 2000 to “ensure access to all Sahelians, at all times, to the foods necessary to lead a healthy and active life by 2015”, an elusive goal nearly 25 years after the policy was unveiled.
However, at this year’s AFSTA Congress, the 17 countries expressed optimism their new endeavor at harmonization of their respective regional seed sector regulatory frameworks would result in sustainable common practices when it comes to variety release, quality control & certification of seeds, phytosanitary control and certification, and the marketing of seeds.
Substantial ground has already been covered in the harmonization drive with the three regional organizations having drafted templates of the required regulatory texts that were eventually validated by the Directors General of Agriculture in all the participating countries.
Other covered issues include having the validated and shared templates used as a reference point for all the countries to undertake, at national level, the required policy reforms in support of the integrated seed sector regulatory framework.
Furthermore, the AFSTA Congress was told the West African and Sahel Seed and Plant Committee (CRSPAOS), whose objective is to strengthen agricultural resilience in the two African regions, has already developed and adopted the executive regulations on seed variety release, quality control and phytosanitary control.
The latest attempt at harmonizing seed industry rules and regulations by the 17 countries, is not a new phenomenon in Africa and neither are the remaining constraints as outlined during the Kigali AFSTA Congress.
For instance, the ECOWAS presentation identified several gaps related to policy reforms such as the “weak understanding of the provisions of the regulations, to properly conduct required policy reforms, by Member States, including National Seed Committees’ members as a major constraint in this new drive to develop a common standard in seed development, use, distribution and trade.”
Other envisaged obstacles to standardizing seed sector trade among the countries relate to variety release such as the “poor understanding of variety release procedures (distinctness, uniformity, and stability & value for cultivation and use tests) by plant breeders and the national seed committees’ members.”
A poor understanding of regulation procedures for seed quality control and certification by field and batch inspectors, including seed lab analysts and NSCs’ members was also singled as a possible hiccup in the new endeavor to match the three regional seed rules and regulations.
Although ECOWAS, UEMOA and CILSS Member States anticipate a 40% increase in crop yields, should they achieve high level use of quality seeds of improved plant varieties, there is, however, the reality on the ground in many of these 17 countries including lack of explanation by the governments as to why despite an increase in the number of seed companies, the varieties released, and quantities of seed produced, “seed quality is still wanting,” according to AGRA.
For the ECOWAS, UEMOA and CILSS vision of harmonizing their seed sector rules and regulations to succeed, involved governments have to commit to engage differently by owning up and addressing the myriad of industry challenges such as the persistent shortage in financing, poor staffing levels and outdated infrastructure and equipment that only encourages circulation of poor quality seed especially among the Africa’s smallholder farmers.