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A workshop starting today, May 25, 2022, in Lomé will provide a more fluid and supervised circulation of seeds in the area covered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS).

The three (03) day workshop will enable stakeholders to validate the draft manual of harmonized regional procedures for the import and export of seeds in the ECOWAS-CILSS areas, which was developed at a previous workshop by experts in Ouagadougou in December 2021.

CORAF has been mandated by the Regional Economic Communities to act as the permanent secretariat of the Regional Seed Committee. 

In line with this mandate, CORAF coordinates and ensures the full implementation of the Harmonized Regional Seed Regulations, which promote the availability, accessibility and circulation of quality seed in the region.

"To guarantee food security in the ECOWAS-CILSS region and reduce dependence on external imports, seeds need to circulate freely. To achieve this, it is crucial that this circulation is framed by clear and harmonized provisions, and the manual of harmonized regional procedures for the import and export of seeds aims to define this framework for the fluid circulation of quality seeds in the region", says Dr Yacouba DIALLO, Agricultural Input Development Expert at CORAF.

To illustrate his peer's point, Dr Hippolyte AFFOGNON, Coordinator of the Partnership for Agricultural Research, Education and Development in West Africa(PAIRED) program, recalls that "during the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the crisis seriously compromised agricultural campaigns and food security in these countries. Thanks to regional solidarity, several West African countries were mobilized to supply seeds to these affected countries".

"Nevertheless, inconsistent national procedures for seed movements between states in the region have revealed the importance of a harmonized Regional Procedures Manual to speed up the import and export of seed in the region," he argued.

The workshop to validate the draft manual of harmonized regional procedures for the import and export of seeds, brings together representatives of the private sector and international and intergovernmental organizations, experts from national seed services, the Department of Trade and national plant protection organizations, and several other stakeholders.

The results expected at the end of the three-day workshop are as follows:

• The manual of harmonized regional procedures for the import and export of seeds in West Africa and the Sahel is reviewed and validated;
• The roadmap, with recommendations for adoption by the Regional Seed Committee and dissemination of the Manual of Harmonized Regional Procedures for Seed Import and Export in West Africa and the Sahel, is developed.

Following validation in Lomé, the Manual of Harmonized Procedures for Seed Import and Export in West Africa and the Sahel is expected to be examined and definitively adopted at the seventh statutory meeting of the West African Regional Seed and Plant Committee (CRSPAO), to be held in Cotonou from June 08 to 10, 2022.

This manual reinforces and completes the battery of regional protocols and regulations that CORAF had already developed and had adopted in the region, as part of the implementation of the Harmonized Regional Seed Regulations. 

Some of these important protocols are :

• The Executive Regulation on the technical regulations governing seed quality control and certification in West Africa;
• The Executive Regulations organizing the regional catalog of plant species and varieties of West Africa ;
• National and regional lists of quarantine pests for seeds; and
• The Executive Rules for Phytosanitary Control and Certification to facilitate cross-border seed trade.

The workshop is organized as part of PAIRED's third component, which aims to ensure the availability of quality agricultural inputs in the region.

PAIRED is a five-year program implemented by CORAF and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Read also:

• Harmonization of regional seed import and export procedures
• Implementing harmonized seed regulations in West Africa: What's the way forward?
• West Africa assesses progress in implementing harmonized regional seed regulations
• Harmonized regional seed regulations: the first signs of a windfall for companies