News

• A forthcoming gathering in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, will go a step further to ensure that seeds and plants are free from pests and diseases;
• West Africa already has several policy instruments in place to level the playing field in terms of cross-border seed transfer.

Over the past decade, CORAF has led a series of policy reforms on behalf of the regional economic communities to ensure the delivery of quality seed to farmers and growers across West Africa.

The harmonization of seed regulations stands out among regional measures aimed at levelling the playing field for cross-border seed trade. Since its adoption in 2008, and subsequent efforts to raise awareness of the policy, companies have increasingly moved seeds across borders. By January 2021, over 95% of ECOWAS member countries, including Chad and Mauritania, had implemented the measure.

But CORAF wants to go further by ensuring that countries import or export pest- and disease-free seeds, and have a common framework for controlling these essential inputs.

At a forthcoming meeting scheduled for March 16-18, 2021, in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, experts will go one step further to ensure that seeds and seedlings are free from pests and diseases. More than 30 experts from national plant protection units of government agencies, national seed committees and representatives of regional organizations(UEMOA, ECOWAS, CILSS and CORAF) will validate a draft executive regulation for phytosanitary control and certification.

West Africa already has a set of tools to facilitate cross-border seed trade. This executive regulation for phytosanitary control and certification will further complement existing policy measures.

"The overriding objective of this proposal is to ensure that commercialized seed is healthy and free from pests and disease," says Dr. Yacouba Diallo, a regional seed expert at CORAF who has been working on seed policy for over a decade.

"This measure helps to increase the trade in quality seeds across countries, ultimately enabling farmers to have access to healthy, quality seeds."

Smooth cross-border trade in seeds requires uniform approaches to quality assessment. The new executive regulation to be validated in Abidjan will provide states with a standard framework for evaluation, analysis and certification.

Shortly after validation, the measure will be submitted to the Regional Seed Committee for West Africa (CRSPAO) for adoption. The primary mission of the CRSPAO is to facilitate the implementation of harmonized regional seed regulations and, consequently, to create conditions conducive to the emergence of a strong seed industry, capable of ensuring a regular supply, at the right time, of sufficient quantities of quality seed in the 17 countries of the sub-regional area. Stakeholders at national level will be trained to ensure effective implementation of the regulations.

CORAF is carrying out this activity as part of the Partnership for Agricultural Research, Education and Development in West Africa (PAIRED) program. PAIRED is a five-year intervention aimed at strengthening CORAF's institutional capacity, scaling up proven technologies and ensuring quality seed delivery. It is funded by theUnited States Agency for International Development.

Read also:

• Harmonized regional seed regulations: the first signs of a windfall for companies
• "CORAF's support has been crucial to the success of our business".
• CORAF supports countries in updating the list of Plant Seed Quarantine Pests
• West Africa assesses progress in implementing harmonized regional seed regulations
• Reaffirming private-sector leadership in the seed sector