Study finds several barriers constraining investments in Africa
Packets of legume seeds within a legume germplasm and breeding program at the University of Zambia. (Photo by Caitlin Breen, 2022)
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Written by Shem Oirere, contributing writer
Africa’s legume seed systems offer good investment opportunities, especially for the private sector, but it requires the intervention of all value chain actors, particularly governments in the continent, in improving the current business climate and addressing several bottlenecks constraining growth of this market according to a new study.
Investments in Africa’s legume seed systems is not an easy task as the study found out due to the numerous, but surmountable obstacles, such as “seed costs, gender preferences, limited access to new variety information, inadequate and untimely availability of seeds in sufficient quantities from the formal seed system, inefficient demand estimation mechanisms within the formal seed supply chain and suboptimal seed quality within the informal system.”
Marketing Opportunities
The study published March 26 in Agronomy for Sustainable Development by Caitlin Breen, Noel Ndlovu, Peter C. McKeown, and Charles Spillane called “Legume seed system performance in sub-Saharan Africa: barriers, opportunities, and scaling options: A review,” says among the many low-hanging fruits for both public and private players in this market is the creation of an “environment that promotes investments in the legume seed development space by private companies.”
Even in the case of countries where seed subsidy is still an active policy “market opportunities for seed companies can arise from input subsidy schemes run by government bodies and some non-governmental organizations.”
According to the study, “supply of legume seeds to these organizations can provide an opportunity for sales of larger quantities of legume seeds and repeat sales.”
Discouraging Investment
However, the study also appreciates the concerns of critics of Africa’s farm input subsidy scheme and says the “provision of free or subsidized seed by NGOs and government bodies are two additional barriers that can discourage the commercial sector from investing time and capital in supplying seed directly to smallholder farmers.”
In fact, a previous report by the African Union, a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa, says the implementation of subsidy programs “ends up disrupting the private sector’s investments in seed marketing and distribution. In addition, payments to seed companies and seed producers are not made promptly leading to cashflow constraints.”
The AU report cites delayed payments by governments that it says “results in cash-flow shortages for seed companies.”
Currently, private investment in informal legume seed systems in Africa is low or non-existent in some countries due to reasons ranging from the poor purchasing power of the smallholder farmers and rural communities to the lack of requisite laws to effectively govern this seed system that accounts for up to 90% of the seed planted by smallholders.
The insufficient purchasing power of the smallholders and the poor rural communities, the study says, is a “key challenge for the improvement of minor and underutilized legume crops” hence constraining market growth and any meaningful investment in vital areas such as “germplasm collection, curation, crossing/breeding programs, multi-locational and multi-annual trials that are critical in improvement programs for minority crops.”
Other Barriers
There are several other barriers constraining the growth of investments, be it technical or financial, in Africa’s legume seed systems.
Investing in breeding. For instance, breeding is an essential phase for any public or private seed producer keen on achieving desired characteristics such as resistance to disease and pests and being climate smart for sustainable yields.
But the study says investing in breeding of some of the legume crops faces challenges, some of which “are inherent to the biology of legume crops” such as difficulty in crossing for some species due to their reproductive biology, while the seed multiplication ratio can act as an obstacle to increasing seed quantities for some legumes such as groundnut, soybean, peas, cowpea.”
“Investments for intensifying efforts in legume breeding and enhancing the legume seed supply are currently inadequate,” the authors observe.
They say a critical analysis of what the key driver is in the uptake of any improved legume seed in Sub Saharan Africa lies in the variety being “high-yielding and have additional traits that match farmer preferences.”
“Scaling legume production in SSA is hinged on the large-scale and sustained adoption of legume varieties that smallholders consider and value as important to their farming and livelihoods,” the study says.
Investing in boosting breeding and seed systems of minor and underutilized legume would help Africa address the challenge of genepool erosion of orphan legume species as well as producing “new improved legume varieties of orphan legume species, which if adopted more widely can help promote resilience across farming systems,” the study says.
Relevant laws. Inadequate or lack of relevant laws have also been identified as a barrier to investments in legume seed systems in Africa as is the existence of policies or regulatory mechanisms that “impose limitations on the operation of seed systems, which in turn can affect the adoption of legumes.”
“For effective legume system scaling, it is necessary to consider the seed laws for each country to investigate how they are enabling smallholders to access seeds of improved legume varieties,” the study says.
Across sub-Saharan Africa, the informal legume seed system is dominant with smallholders showing “a strong reliance on the informal system by smallholder farmers in sourcing seeds of non-cash crop legumes,” the study says.
Potential investors in Africa’s legume seed market, would have to work with stakeholders along the value chain, especially in public sector, in identifying and implementing measures to address the bottlenecks constraining the development, release, and supply of sufficient improved legume varieties to smallholder farmers in the continent.
Attracting Meaningful Investment
For sub-Saharan Africa to attract and retain meaningful public and private investments in the region’s legume seed systems, the study suggests industry interventions providing specific and targeted training to stakeholders such as breeders/seed scientists and farmers as well as utilizing farmer knowledge in seed development to increase seed adoption rates.
Other suggestions by the study include “supporting local seed enterprises, (technically and financially), and enacting more flexible policy instruments that support non-staple crop production.”
But for the long haul, Africa’s realization of food security and high nutritional levels would lie in focused and sustained mobilization of technical and financial resources from both public and private sectors to improve the region’s formal and informal legume seed systems.
