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As the multiple players involved in West Africa's seed sector strengthen their collaboration and extend their activities to the private sector, small-scale farmers are beginning to reap the rewards in terms of access not only to certified seeds, but also to seeds that can withstand climate change.

Ouattara Siriki, aged 31, hails from Bama, a village some 350 kilometers southwest of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. Like some of his peers, Siriky did not have the opportunity to continue his education beyond primary school. So he began helping his father on the family plot in his teens. In Bama, the majority of the population is involved in subsistence farming. This village of almost 5,000 inhabitants traditionally grows rice, maize and millet, and raises livestock.

For decades, Siriki and her father have been in the habit of obtaining seeds from families and neighbors when the planting season was about to begin. Like many farmers in their village, seeds are usually passed on or sold informally at the start of each cropping season. In most cases, the yield potential of these seeds is low. This is what experts generally refer to as the traditional or informal seed system. For many decades, farmers in Burkina Faso and many parts of West Africa have exchanged or distributed their seeds in this way.

Around 80% of the seeds used by farmers in West Africa come from the informal system, according to the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF), the organization responsible for coordinating seed industry reform in West Africa.

"This system not only provides poor quality seed, but also perpetuates the vicious circle of low agricultural productivity," explains Abdoulaye Sawadogo, promoter of NAFASO, one of the region's most successful seed companies based in Bobo Dioulasso, exporting seed throughout West Africa.

"For a farmer to get to a place where he can buy quality certified seed, he most often has to sacrifice one or two days' work, spend money on transport and food," dixit Mr. Sawadogo in reference to the challenge of access to quality seed in West Africa.

"And sometimes, after all that effort, they can't afford it, the price of certified seed is slightly higher for the average farmer," he says.

Private seed companies, research institutes and technical partners are changing the game.

As private companies and seed cooperatives develop in Burkina Faso and learn to collaborate better with research institutions, there will be more opportunities for farmers to access quality seeds in an environment where the free circulation of these products is respected in the region.

In Bama, not only have the Siriki family become users of quality seeds on their own family farm, they have also become a major subcontractor to NAFASO. Large seed companies in West Africa tend to contract with individual growers or cooperatives for certified seed multiplication. Siriki and her father's increase in annual seed production has made a big difference to their livelihoods.

"I earn nearly two million FCFA producing seeds. The income has helped me build my house, marry my wife and provide for my family," enthuses Siriki, whom we met on a rice field in Bama, in the Haut Bassin region of Burkina Faso.

Siriki and his father produce and sell their seeds exclusively to NAFASO, in accordance with their contract with the company. Like Siriki, hundreds of growers in Burkina Faso work to produce quality seeds. The output of this network of subcontractors is responsible for the annual production of almost 6,000 tonnes of NAFASO seeds.

"Thanks to this approach, we are in a position to meet national and regional market demand," said NAFASO's CEO.

Although the gap between supply and demand is still wide, there can be no doubt about NAFASO's contribution to access to quality seeds in Burkina Faso and other West African countries.

At the end of May, when we visited the company's headquarters in Bobo Dioulaso, NAFASO had just sent three truckloads of rice seed to Sierra Leone and Senegal. Of the 6,000 tonnes produced each year, NAFASO exports almost 2,000 tonnes to Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Chad, Congo and other countries in West and Central Africa.

"Most of these new ventures would not have been possible without the intervention of CORAF, appointed by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) to coordinate the harmonization of regional seed regulations," emphasizes Sawadogo.

Together with ECOWAS, UEMOA and CILSS, CORAF continues to lead strategic efforts to strengthen Seed Alliances in West Africa, including the creation of a private sector coalition known as the Alliance for a Seed Industry in West Africa (ASIWA) and the strengthening of the West African Regional Seed and Plant Committee CRSPAO/COAsem for the implementation of regional seed regulations.

While it may still be too early to assess the real impact of CORAF's contribution to access to quality seeds, Burkina Faso's experience shows that its efforts have made a difference to production, marketing and access for poor small-scale farmers.

Not only have seed cooperative associations expanded their activities, but they are also undertaking more effective awareness-raising activities thanks to the empowerment programs of CORAF, acting as a technical partner to ECOWAS and UEMOA.

At the height of government support for Burkina Faso's cooperative seed association through the West African Agricultural Productivity Program (PPAAO) in 2013, seed production reached around 9,000 tonnes. This figure fell to around 5,500 tonnes in 2018. PPAAO has worked with another CORAF initiative, the Seed Program for West Africa (PSAO) to bring together seed actors to facilitate smallholder farmers' access to quality seed.

The Nigerian experience

Over the past ten years, CORAF's work in Nigeria has focused on supporting the seed system through the PSAO and PPAAO.

Here, a series of interrelated seed distribution, capacity-building and public-private partnership activities have significantly strengthened the seed sector.

"Thanks to CORAF's efforts, 70,000 tons of foundation seed were distributed to competent seed companies, which in turn produced and sold certified seed to farmers in Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea during the 2015 Ebola epidemic crisis," says Professor Onyibe, Technical Advisor of the Seed Entrepreneurs' Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN).

CORAF, through PPAAO Nigeria, has supported the National Center for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology by funding meetings of the National Variety Dissemination Committee, maintaining the national gene bank and upgrading essential facilities at the biotechnology laboratory for germplasm conservation.

Growing demand for climate-resistant, high-yielding and nutritious varieties

Despite the difficult climate, many seed-producing farmers have resorted to seeds that are no longer adapted to irregular rainfall patterns and unpredictable weather conditions.

Improved collaboration between public research institutes, seed companies and farmers has made it possible to address concerns about changing climatic conditions and the nutritional value of staple foods, which are increasingly taken into account in crop breeding programs.

"Most of our customers require seeds that are disease and pest resistant and adapted to climatic variability. Farmers are looking for seeds of high-yielding crop varieties with high nutritional value", said Mr. Stephen Yacouba Atar, CEO of Da All Green Seeds Limited, one of Nigeria's oldest seed companies.

"Our ability to meet farmer demand is due to the fact that research institutes provide us with quality germplasm that meets ever-changing needs. Without CORAF, we would not have been able to buy quality seed of these varieties", says Mr. Atar, whose company is based in Kaduna (Northern Nigeria).

Working together better for farmers' interests

Many players are involved in the seed sector in West Africa. At regional level, these include regional economic communities and intergovernmental organizations, notably ECOWAS, UEMOA and CILLS. Scientific and technical partners include IITA, AfricaRice, ICRISAT, IFDC, FARA, national agricultural research institutes, the private sector, AFSTA, ROPPA, HubRural, multinational companies, as well as financial and technical partners such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank and USAID.

A new USAID-funded initiative is forging vital partnerships between key players in the sector to deliver seeds and associated technologies to farmers on an accelerated basis. The main mission of the Partnership for Agricultural Research, Education and Development (PAIRED) is to seek innovative approaches to create synergies and optimize resources in order to provide farmers with essential science and technology.

Stakeholders believe that a stronger partnership with greater involvement of the private sector is the best approach to bring the necessary innovation to West African farmers.

"Coordinating the efforts of these organizations is essential to achieve the expected development results for farmers," explains Dr Hippolyte Affognon, head of PAIRED.

"Diminishing development resources mean we need to look for effective approaches to generate large-scale impact. We believe the PAIRED approach of optimizing efforts and resources will help in this regard," added the PAIRED project manager.

Read also:

• Harmonized regional seed regulations: the first signs of a windfall for companies

• "Private sector growth is a real measure of the success of seed regulation"