THE Community Technology Development Organisation (CTDO) has bemoaned the exclusion of smallerholder farmers in the seed development sector which it said presented a disadvantage to the attainment of food security.
Speaking to NewsDay on the sidelines of the workshop held in Harare yesterday to promote an enabling environment for farmers' seed systems, CTDO executive director Andrew Mushita said integration of smallholder farmers was important in boosting food security.
Mushita said the seed regulatory framework in Zimbabwe had gaps that needed to be strategically covered.
“The key component is to support or to get smallholder farmers enter into the seed development sector. As you know, seed was produced by only the big boys, Seed Co and all these big companies.
“The challenge is that most of these seed companies now have been bought by Europeans. Many seed companies in Africa are gone. If you look at Pannar in South Africa, Pioneer, National Tested Seed, Prime Seeds, they are all gone,” he said.
Zimbabwe regulates the seed sector through a number of legal instruments, including the Seeds Act (Chapter 19:13) 1971, revised 2001; Seeds (Amendment) Regulations 1971; Seed Regulations and Seeds (Certification Scheme) Notice 2000; Plant Breeders' Rights Act (Chapter 18:16) 1979, revised 2001; Plant Pests and Diseases.
The regulations and laws governing seed production stipulate that only registered sellers and seed testing laboratories can sell and test seed and seed can only be sold under the name given to it by its originator, unless authorised by the minister.
Mushita said seed laws were favourable to the formal sector leaving smallholder farmers vulnerable.
“As you know, most of these small crops, traditional crops, there is no law or regulatory framework so what we need is to ensure that there is a balance and to support smallholder seed systems,” said Mushita.
He said as stakeholders, they had made several interventions to cushion smallholder farmers in the volatile seed environment.
“We are actually constructing a lot of community seed banks. Countrywide, I think at the moment we have 30 community seed banks and the whole idea is to collect all this germplasm, put it in these community seed banks,” Mushita said.
“The second objective is also to enhance conservation and sustainable utilisation for purposes of enhancing food security and nutrition, but also conservation, sustainable use and benefit sharing.”
He, however, called for measures to control seed production.
“We need to have our smallholder farmers establish family seed enterprises so that then they have a backup in terms of producing seed which meets their own requirements, their choices, culture, they are acceptable socially,” he said.
Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development deputy minister Vangelis Haritatos said the government was committed to addressing the challenges that affected smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe.
“Through the Agriculture and Food Systems Rural Transformation Strategy, government put in place new, transformative, inclusive development pathways guided by Zimbabwe's Vision 2030, which embraces the National Development Strategy 1, which runs from 2021 to 2025 and other developmental programmes to achieve an upper-middle-income economy,” he said.
“The government of Zimbabwe recognises the fundamental role smallholder farmers play in the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic materials, particularly their role in managing seed, multiplying, breeding and selection, saving and retention, as well as utilisation.”