THE POLITICS OF SEED By Natasha Mhango

Farmer Input Supply Program(FISP) beneficiaries collecting their inputs

It has been said that a country’s agricultural sector is as strong as its seed system. Zambia is one of the largest seed exporters in Africa with its maize seed industry being regarded as the strongest in the SADC region. The country has enjoyed a longstanding reputation of original genetic research and certified seed production.

The private sector plays a major role in this seed production and export. Commercial farmers who are specialized, take the lead role in breeding and improving seed varieties and selling of varieties that are certified by the Seed Control and Certification Institute (SCCI).However, this formal seed sector is designed for commercial agriculture. Small scale farmers who are the majority of farmers and who are not as technologically able, are not fully
involved in that cycle and hence find themselves sourcing and exchanging seed in the informal seed sector.

The formal seed sector concentrates mainly on maize, leaving traditional food crops unattended to. The seed for such crops are more dominant in the informal seed sector in which farmers collect, conserve, multiply and exchange seed among themselves. “It is estimated that in developing countries, the informal seed system is responsible for more than 80% of the area planted with subsistence crops.”(World Bank.2012)

Royd Michelo is a farmer from Chongwe whose household depends on the informal seed for their nutrition and food security. Not only is the seed more affordable but it is easily accessible.

“Local seed can be easily sourced locally and it can be exchanged. If I have cowpeas and you have Bambara nuts, we can exchange - 10kg of nuts for K10 of cowpeas,” Mr. Michelo said.

He adds that traditional seed is more nutritious and through informal seed systems, he is able to access a variety of seed.

The informal seed sector enables crop and nutrition diversity; and thus can enhance sustainable agriculture among the most vulnerable communities. In these communities, seed is an item of survival because it is an irreplaceable pillar of their food production.

However, the informal seed sector, as the name suggests, is not regulated meaning that the seed being shared is not patented neither are the farmers recognized registered seed breeders.

Given that farming is a business, this entails that farmers who wish to generate meaningful income are obliged to purchase and use hybrid seed for the sake of their intended market. Farmers have no seed sovereignty because they have no control over how they would like to grow their own crop.

Seed sovereignty is significant to enabling sustainable agriculture.

According to renown food activist, Vandana Shiva, seed sovereignty is the “farmers’ rights to breed and exchange seed which can be saved; and which are not patented, [not] GMO or [not] controlled by seed [corporations].”  So if farmers do not have their own seed that they can improve or exchange, then they do not have seed sovereignty.

This situation has led to the erosion of seed variety and changes in the seed supply system and in turn has contributed to poor nutrition and even food crises in small scale farming communities.

Given that most traditional and non-maize seed is in the hands of small scale farmers it is safe to conclude that the food security of Zambia is in the hands of small scale farmers. However seed laws require compulsory registration of seed producers and this has made it difficult for small scale farmers to efficiently multiply their own seed.  As a result, most farmers are heavily dependent on the corporate world for their crop production.

Most seed laws give large corporations property rights over seed, making it mandatory for farmers to purchase and use their hybrid seed while also preventing others from using, producing or exchanging them. Consequently, farmers are now faced with higher costs of production as they are not only compelled to purchase hybrid seed but also the necessary accompanying chemicals needed for crop management.

Farmers’ traditional seed varieties are mostly classified as less productive and disease-ridden more especially by international seed markets. And yet in contrast, research has proved that some local seed varieties are actually more resistant to disease and environmental changes.

Traditional varieties are therefore critical in helping farmers build their resilience to environmental changes and ensuring household food security.

 “[Our] mindset!...we have forgotten where we came from and we don’t even know where we’re going. We are just considering where we are – we never knew that one day they would be climate change…I managed to harvest a variety of food despite the drought in the last farming season because of the traditional seed I planted,” Mr. Michelo said.

Seed is an item of survival

Traditional seed is governed by what farmers have learned culturally from the ecological calendar. Furthermore, the seed is saved and circulated through informal seed systems which are linked to religious and cultural practices.

“A wide range of mechanisms exists to exchange and supply seed. Transactions involve cultural forms such as gifts, seed swaps, in-kind seed loans or exchange for labour,” (GTZ.2000)

It is through informal seed systems that farmers’ seed sovereignty can be upheld. As such, there is a growing need to enhance the informal seed sector more especially as the effects of climate change are becoming more apparent.

Seeds officer for the Seed Certification and Control Institute (SCC), Evans Tembo highlighted that the informal seed sector is recognized but there exit certain regional and international trade barriers.

“Countries have their own seed laws and there are a lot of variations in these seed laws… So it [has been]felt that for us to facilitate trade without having these barriers [in]the difference in standard, we need to harmonize, whether in germination or purity standards… in these regional blocks so that seed can move freely,” Mr. Tembo.

It is based on this premise that the SADC Harmonized Seed Regulatory Systems was launched. But at local level, traditional indigenous seed is not yet promoted as much as patented seed.

According PELUM Zambia Programs Officer, Wilfred Miga, while the informal seed systems are recognized by necessary authoritative institutions, there is insufficient regulatory framework to actively support their development.

He explained that indigenous seed is considered inferior to hybrid seed because they are not able to grow in any ecological regions as some hybrids such as maize does.

“What we are advocating for is - let there be a dual certification process – one process which certifies commercial hybrid varieties and then there should also be another process which recognize an certify traditional varieties,” Mr. Miga said.

Informal seed systems contrast the more capitalist models of food production whose main aim is profit maximization because they are not only a source of food but they also support biodiverse farming practices.

As Zambia champions the need for crop and nutrition diversity, it is imperative that for the environment and issues of food security, farmers’ seed sovereignty is protected and enhanced.