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Eastern and Southern Africa (Nairobi, Kenya)
Regional Program 2: Crop Improvement and Seed Sector Reform
Introduction
Advances in plant breeding have provided significant increases in food grain outputs. Improved varieties are often the easiest and most cost effective form of technology change especially in smallholder production systems. Recognizing this, the International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs) is collaboratively working with the national agricultural research systems (NARS) in crop improvement program. ICRISAT-SADC-SMIP (ICRISAT–Southern African Development Community–Sorghum and Millet Improvement Program) is one good example. The most common approach has been that IARCs would provide advanced breeding lines or populations that are incorporated into national breeding programs for further selection, evaluation and final release of the cultivars.
However, viable seed systems are a pre-requisite to ensure farmers’ access to quality seed of improved varieties. The seed sector development varies considerably among Eastern and Southern African (ESA) countries. Public agencies in ESA have been developing, multiplying and distributing seed of new varieties. Most commercial seed sector development has been slow and have had limited successes in spite of investments and assistances. Strict controls on variety release, multiplication and trade are necessary to protect the farmers’ interests.
Goal
Enhance sustainable increases in crop productivity by strengthening the regionally oriented crop improvement, and the associated development of regional seed markets in ESA.
Purpose
Assist the public and private partners of SADC–Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (FANR) and the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) to establish and pursue efficient regionalized breeding programs that integrate biotechnology, farmers’ participation, and use of local germplasm of ICRISAT mandate crops.
Main challenges
  • National research institutes do not have adequate resources to pursue successful crop breeding programs for all major crops.
  • CGIAR Institutes such as ICRISAT, CIMMYT and CIAT have struggled to fill the gap by maintaining regional programs of applied breeding. They remain the primary source of new varieties for most countries, although not sustainable.
  • Public sector provision of improved seed has not been successful while commercial seed supply has faced unusually high transaction costs and some market failure. The seed agenda is more of a policy issue that requires technical support to justify a reform.
During the past few years, ICRISAT has been working with SADC-NARS to develop a stronger analytical basis for regionalized crop breeding. It has also provided technical support to the SADC Seed Security Network (SSSN) in order to harmonize the seed regulations in the SADC region. Stakeholder’s commitment to this agenda is strengthened through this program. The Eastern and Central Africa Programme for Agricultural Policy Analysis (ECAPAPA) has expressed interest in pursuing a similar approach in Eastern and Central Africa. ICRISAT through SMIP and other programs have also tested a number of strategies to stimulate the flow of improved seed varieties to farmers. The sustainability and profitability of the efforts of regional and multinational institutions are questionable and therefore strategies have to be explored.
Focus
  1. Improve and strengthen the efficiency of crop breeding and cultivar evaluation for ICRISAT crops across the ESA region through new institutional arrangements and integration of new breeding tools and techniques.
  2. Collaborate with public and private sectors and provide technical inputs to institutions spearheading the harmonization of seed regulations and policies especially variety registration, seed quality and certification procedures and SPS in the ESA region(s).
  3. Pursue and promote alternative seed delivery mechanisms on combination with other technology that enhance productivity.
  4. Maintain and use plant genetic resources for tapping traits that are required by the end users, eg, farmers and product markets.
Outputs
  1. Sustainable regional breeding networks for cereals and legumes and enhanced capacity for NARS and partners in ESA:
    2. Resources for crop breeding are declining both at the national and international institution levels. Preliminary achievements towards pursuance of efficiency in crop breeding include broad delineation of southern Africa agroecological zones, stratification of sites to identify and use from the subsets, a few key representative testing sites. The strategy of engaging NARS scientists to take leadership in agreed upon regional activities is pursued as the the lead NARS approach and also through competitive funds for proposals developed by a group of NARS and led by one NARS with a competitive technical advantage.
  2. Genetic resources:
    3. Our regional gene bank at Bulawayo holds sorghum and millet germplasm and landraces collected from the SADC region. The Nairobi genebank holds sorghum and millets from East and Central Africa, as well as pigeonpeas. The program will continue to add to the collections, fill gaps, continue the characterization and conservation, and incorporate landraces in the breeding programs. Conventional agro-morphological as well as molecular markers techniques will be deployed in the characterization of germplasm. Genetic studies will also be conducted that link regionalized breeding, seed system and maintenance of genetic diversity.
  3. Improved germplasm and regionally adapted parental lines, varieties/hybrids:
    4. Farmer and market needs from crop varieties are variable in terms of adaptability to the prevailing climatic conditions and with respect to taste and end use preferences. Breeding programs have to make use of farmer preferred varieties and landraces for further crop improvement. This program will integrate new breeding techniques such as biotechnology and farmer participatory approaches to conventional breeding. Crop breeding efficiency will be attained through methodical regional variety evaluation using information obtained from Agro Ecological Zonations (AEZ), use of key benchmark test sites and regional sharing of materials and information.
  4. Enhanced dissemination of improved varieties:
    5. Seed sector reform is expected to happen through the development of seed policies that will reduce transaction costs in seed market and make seed more readily available to farmers. The SSSN and ECAPAPA harmonize the seed laws and regulations. Our role (through this program) is to provide technical inputs and assist in the seed sector reform process.
  5. Alternative strategies for efficient seed production and delivery mechanisms:
    6. ICRISAT through the SMIP project has developed and tested alternative seed delivery strategies and these have resulted into significant adoption rate. Linked to output 3, Regional Program 1 and Regional Program 3, seed technology dissemination will integrate other productivity enhancing technology for improving farm productivity and profitability.