"The rapid growth of local seed companies over a very short time period is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit percolating in communities across Africa and to the pent-up demand among Africa's smallholder farmers for improved, high-yield crop varieties," said Dr Joe de Vries, director of AGRA's Programme for Africa's Seed Systems (PASS.)
According to the report, Planting the Seeds of a Green Revolution in Africa, PASS started out working with a handful of companies that together produced about 2,000 tons of seed. Today, it is partnering with some 80 companies across the continent that produce professionally certified seed for an array of African staple crops including maize, cassava, millet, rice, sorghum, beans, sweet potato, cow pea, groundnut, soybean and pigeon pea.
For example, in Nigeria, Maslaha Seeds was launched in 2006 and produced only about 600 tons of seed in its first year, mostly for high-yield rice and for a type of high-yield maize known as a hybrid. But it worked with PASS and other partners to rapidly expand and now produces thousands of tons of seed each year for a wide menu of crop varieties, including high-yield sorghum, millet, and cow pea developed specifically for Nigeria's growing conditions.
There already are indications that increasing access to the improved seed is helping farmers coax far more food out of the same amount of land. A 2013 survey of farmers in nine countries found that the majority of farmers who have invested in improved crop varieties have seen yields rise by 50% to 100%.
The report also identified challenges to ensuring that the majority of smallholder farmers in Africa have access to improved crop varieties, and to the fertilizers and other inputs required to achieve their full yield potential.
"It's clear that increasing incomes for small farms, and for the local businesses that supply them, is the key to prosperity for millions of people living in sub-Saharan Africa," said Dr Richard B. Jones, SSTP Chief of Party at AGRA. "Now we're building on that success by working with the private sector and governments to form country-led initiatives that will substantially increase and maintain the development, production and distribution of quality seed of superior varieties."
"When we talk about a unique Green Revolution for Africa, we are talking about something that is indeed revolutionary, which is the development of a modern, highly productive agriculture sector that remains focused on small, family farms," said AGRA president Jane Karuku. "Our seed programme has shown that, if given access to the essential ingredients of modern agriculture, smallholder farmers in Africa can rapidly increase food production and become the bedrock of food security for the continent."
