Monrovia — Agriculture Development Agencies, researchers, and policymakers from across Africa, have begun a two-day summit to draw a seed roadmap for the country.
By Willie Tokpah
The symposium is surrounding ideas on how the Liberia Government can build an Economically Sustainable Integrated Cassava Seed System, Phase 2 (BASICS-II) project of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) of the African Development Bank, and the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) in Nigeria.
The Seed Business Summit held under the theme, “Building a Harmonized Roadmap for Seed Sector Transformation”, is being organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Central Agricultural Research Institute (CARI), and other stakeholders.
The forum aims to catalyze an agricultural revolution in Liberia through the establishment of an economically sustainable seed system for priority crops like rice, cassava, maize, soybean, and fish.
“Factors limiting growth in Liberia’s agricultural sector include the underdeveloped seed sector characterized by poor quality seeds, a weak seed regulatory framework, a struggling research system for variety maintenance, and a feeble private sector participation in the seed system”, says Dr. Godwin Atser, the Country Director of SAA-Nigeria.
“A solid seed system will surely change the country’s agricultural landscape. In this summit, SAA, BASICS-II, TAAT, and other partners will share the models currently strengthening the seed system in Nigeria,” Dr. After said.
He noted that during the conference, there will be powerful technical sessions where the host and other countries will be exposed to how BASICS-II is building a sustainable cassava seed system in Nigeria and Tanzania.
“We will also showcase how we are scaling and replicating seed system development in cassava, maize, soybean, and rice in other African countries,” he added.
The BASICS-II Project Manager, Prof Lateef Sanni, explained that the seed business summit would elevate the voices of value chain actors in the rice, cassava, maize, soybean, and fish seed systems by sharing success stories on increasing the availability of climate adaptive, improved, and disease-free seed to improve farmers’ livelihoods.
According to Prof Sanni, “The summit will produce outcomes that will form the basis of future investment in Liberia’s seed system. It will produce recommendations that will help forge a roadmap that will feed into the country’s agricultural policies and plans: the Liberia Agriculture Sector Investment Plan, the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, and other developmental initiatives in the country.
For his part, the Head of TAAT Clearinghouse, Dr Solomon Gizaw, “this summit represents a direct response to the need to hold a more comprehensive audience consultation to identify major challenges, develop solutions, and advocate for more investments in Liberia’s agriculture.
“This seed summit will bring together policymakers, international financial institutions and policymakers, scientists, the private sector, and farmer organizations to a roundtable discussion to broker investments for Liberian agricultural transformation with quality inputs, particularly seed as a primary entry point.”
Further speaking, Agriculture Minister Dr J. Alex Nuetah, noted that the summit’s opening ceremony will be chaired, with the support of other Liberian dignitaries from the parliament and related ministries.
Apart from the IITA, Sasakawa Africa Association, the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), and BASICS-II, several national stakeholders and International Development partners will participate at the summit.
They include the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO); the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI); the Integrated Rice-Fish Farming System (IRFFS), and the World Bank.
Others are the European Union’s Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA) initiative; Word Food Programme (WFP); International Monetary Fund (IMF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID); the EU, France, GIZ, Ireland, JICA and China, as well as agencies of the UN system. Farmers, seed producers, Universities of Agriculture, and the National Seed Board of Liberia will also attend.