Official Newsletter of the WANA Seed Network
No. 35, July 2008
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This section presents information on the WANA Seed Network, including network activities and reports of the meetings of the Steering Committee and the WANA Seed Council.
New Regional Seed Association Formed
History was made on 18 July in Istanbul, Turkey when the formation of the new regional seed association was announced by 10 member countries of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) region comprising of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The decision to form this association followed an intense two-day consultative meeting amongst delegates, which was held on 17-18 July under the aegis of the ECO Secretariat as part of the intra-regional Technical Cooperation Project supported by FAO and implemented jointly with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). Prior to that a three-day regional workshop on harmonization of seed regulations attended by more than 50 Senior Government officials and representatives of the private sector, after discussing technical and policy issues, endorsed harmonization and the need for a regional association to translate this into a reality.
The delegates after reviewing the existing opportunities for public-private partnerships had reached a consensus to embark on the formation of the new regional seed association that will represent the interests of all the member countries and contribute to the development of the seed sector in the region. In recognition of the advanced nature of the Turkish seed industry and the leadership role it could play in ensuring the visibility and viability of the association, the delegates agreed to locate the headquarters of the regional seed association in Ankara.
Also present at the meeting were international experts as well as executives of the International Seed Federation (ISF) representing the global seed industry and the Asia and Pacific Seed Association (APSA) who shared their experiences in facilitating seed security and seed trade.
ECO, FAO and ICARDA worked closely with member countries, and particularly the Government of Turkey in facilitating the meeting which lead to the formation of the regional seed association. The membership of the association will be open to all seed companies and service providers to the seed industry from ECO region and beyond.
During the opening statement Dr Metin Genckol, Director of Agriculture and Tourism of ECO, stressed that "the ECO region covers about 800 million ha with rich diversity in agro-ecology, farming systems, crops and a population of over 350 million. We are cultivating barely half of the available land (only 24%) from the potential cultivable area of 49%. Obviously there is great opportunity for expansion and diversification of agriculture in the era of soaring food prices".
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| Consultative
meeting organized by the ECO, FAO and ICARDA in Istanbul, Turkey |
Dr Zewdie Bishaw, Head of ICARDA's Seed Unit, said that "organizing the seed industry is in the best interest of farmers. "Today the winners are the farmers of the ECO region who would be served better through better organized seed industry," he added.
In his closing remarks Dr Michael Larinde of FAO said: "Today we have planted a seed which should be nurtured to develop into a productive plant that would bear fruits to meet regional food security".
ECO, FAO and ICARDA worked closely with member countries, and particularly the Government of Turkey in facilitating the meeting which lead to the formation of the regional seed association. The membership of the association will be open to all seed companies and service providers to the seed industry from ECO region and beyond.
The ECO member countries collectively represent a huge seed market worth billions of dollars. The estimated domestic annual seed market based on potential demand in the top three countries alone is close to US $1 billion.
Metin Genckol, ECO, Tehran, Iran; E-mail: mgenckol@yahoo.com; Michael Larinde, FAO, Rome, Italy; E-mail: michael.larinde@fao.org; and Zewdie Bishaw, ICARDA, Aleppo, Syria; E-mail: z.bishaw@cgiar.org
ICARDA Organizes Regional Workshop on Small-scale Seed Enterprise Development
Background
In the context of major policy shifts towards privatization, decentralization, and promotion of rural businesses, it is expected that the establishment of small-scale seed enterprises through farmer participation will provide an effective alternative seed delivery mechanism to serve poor farmers in marginal areas. Given the limited experiences available on Small-scale Enterprises in the Central West Asia and North Africa region, ICARDA organized a regional workshop from 26 to 28 February 2008 at its headquarters in Aleppo on Small-scale Seed Enterprise Development. The workshop was partially funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) through its overseas office in Syria and in-collaboration with the Syrian Planning Commission. This was the fourth event of series of regional workshops implemented within the Third Country Training Program (TCTP) for Afghanistan over 5- Japanese Fiscal years from April 2004 to March 2009. FAO-Afghanistan through the EU funded seed project provided financial to support for additional participants from Afghanistan.
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| Participants of the Regional workshop on small-scale seed enterprise development |
Workshop objectives
The objective of the workshop is to provide a forum for experience sharing and to formulate recommendations and action plans for improving business environment for small-scale enterprise development in the region. The objective was achieved through key presentations, case studies, experience sharing, and discussions:
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Background and approaches to small-scale seed enterprise (SSE) promotion and development |
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SSE development experiences from North Africa: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia; reflections on national perspectives |
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SSE experience under USAID-RAMP & DAI projects (ICARDA) and EU projects (FAO) in Afghanistan |
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Farmer-based seed production and marketing activities in Egypt and Eritrea and potential for development in Oman |
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Seed production and enterprise management experiences from private entrepreneurs from Afghanistan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen |
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Seed sector development in Afghanistan: challenges for effective linkages between public research and seed systems |
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Public sector seed supply system, and effective linkage between crop research and seed supply in Syria |
These presentations were followed by extensive discussions to generate ideas and suggestions for improving the enabling environment for small-scale seed enterprise development in the region as an alternative delivery mechanism to serve resource poor farmers. The workshop was attended by 24 participants from 10 countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Japan, Morocco, Oman, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
Koffi Amegbeto, ICARDA, P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria; E-mail: k.amegbeto@cgiar.org