Regional finding

Key findings for Eastern and Southern Africa

For the third time, the Access to Seeds Index shines a light on 32 leading companies in Eastern and Southern Africa, on their efforts to reach smallholder farmers with quality seeds of improved varieties in the region.

The Access to Seeds Index highlights the efforts of seed companies to improve access to seeds for smallholder farmers in emerging economies. Small-scale farmers often lack opportunities to access farm inputs and can benefit significantly from increased knowledge, technology, and resources that companies can provide. The index seeks primarily to identify leadership and good practices across the seed industry, providing an evidence base for discussing where and how companies can step up their efforts.

The efforts of the 32 companies are evident through the offer of diverse and broad crop portfolios of important global and traditional crops to smallholder farmers in all 19 index countries. There are two or more companies reporting a sales presence in each country. However, only 13 companies report on extending their sales presence to remote rural areas that are difficult to reach, often due to lack of road infrastructure.

Beyond sales, companies have to train farmers on adopting new technologies through extension services. In 2021, companies now have extension services present in all index countries, which is four more countries than in 2019. But the distribution of these training services is disproportionate and too few farmers benefit in those countries where companies are present.

Overall, the industry’s efforts to develop the local seed sector, such as breeding programs, seed production, and seed processing, continue to be concentrated in few countries (8). To ensure that the seed industry adheres to and respects social and labour standards, the index particularly evaluates the performance of seed companies investing in seed production in the region where they tend to contract local players to support these activities. The results show that companies lack adequate systems to ensure social and labour standards across seed production activities.

Although companies invest in their presence in the region and target smallholder farmers as important clients, there is scope of improvement across the six measurement areas. The index provides a road map on leading practices, risks and opportunities to accelerate their efforts and increase transparency to enable knowledge sharing and focused improvement actions.

Companies are present across index countries but can increase their reach to remote areas

In Eastern and Southern Africa, companies show strong efforts to reach smallholder farmers with sales in all 19 index countries and two or more companies in each country. However, only 13 companies report reaching remote rural areas with sales for smallholder farmers.

Smallholder farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa dominate the agricultural systems and play a key role in feeding the region’s communities. Therefore, the availability of seed of suitable crops for smallholder farmers in remote rural areas in time for the sowing periods and a continuous and reliable supply is strongly related to improving food production, income, and livelihood of many small-scale farmers. In the region, globally active companies are starting to catch up with regional companies, which typically have strong distribution channels to reach smallholder farmers at the farm gate.

Companies show strong efforts to reach smallholder farmers with sales in all 19 index countries and two or more companies in each country. However, only 13 companies report reaching remote rural areas with limited infrastructure. For example, global companies such as Bayer report reaching remote areas in all 15 countries; Rijk Zwaan reports reaching remote areas of its 12 countries of sales presence; Syngenta has sales in 13 countries but only reaches remote areas in 9; Corteva Agriscience has the broadest global company coverage (17 countries), but does not reach or indicate if it reaches remote areas in any of these countries.
Regional Seed Co has the most expansive presence and reaches remote areas in all 17 countries. In comparison, Agriscope Africa (East African Seed) has a notable presence in 13 countries but only reaching remote areas in 5 countries. Agriscope Africa utilises its partnerships with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and agrodealers to reach remote areas, in some areas with motorbikes as transportation. Other regional companies focus sales on the home countries working with local agents to reach remote areas. For example, Victoria Seeds, which is only operational in Uganda, has pioneered the use of ‘TukTuks,’ or ‘mobile seed shops’, to deliver seeds to remote areas of the country.

The highest company presence is in South Africa and Zambia (16), Kenya (15), Uganda (13) and Zimbabwe (13). Since the 2019 index, the number of index companies present with sales in Ethiopia increased to 11 from 7 but remains low in Somalia (4), Lesotho (3) and Eswatini (2). This is an opportunity for more companies to invest in resilient and robust distribution channels in more countries and closer to farmer households to reduce the need for these farmers to walk a long distance to find quality seeds available close to their farms whenever they need them.

Companies report the significant impact of Covid- 19 on distribution channels and quality assurance in the region

Companies report reaching smallholder farmers in remote areas directly or through agro-dealers, agro-vets, or agricultural supply stores in rural villages across countries. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, companies report implications on distribution channels where outlets and agro-dealer shops closed, and companies faced increased transport costs at the local and international levels. As a result, companies had to develop new channels and strategies to build resilient supply chains and address gaps in access to digital marketing for smallholder farmers.

Companies report an impact due to Covid-19 on ensuring quality and after-sale support such as through customer feedback and grievance mechanisms for smallholder farmers to ensure that counterfeit seeds are not sold under their brand. Companies report failure to conduct routine after-sale services such as agro dealer and farmer training in most countries but switching to digital tools to avoid any compromises on the quality of their products.

Crop portfolios are broad, diverse, and newer

Company portfolios in Eastern and Southern Africa are diverse for vegetable and field crops, with maize still the most popular for many companies. In addition, companies continue to offer more Open Pollinated Varieties than hybrids preferred by smallholder farmers, and they are introducing newer varieties on the market than in 2019.

The combined efforts of global and regional companies are complimentary to give smallholder farmers a wide choice of suitable quality seeds to increase production of healthy and nutritious food for home consumption and responding to the market demand. These efforts are reflected on broad vegetables and field crops portfolios companies offer to smallholders in the region. Global companies, in general, provide more vegetable crops than regional companies except on crops such as tomatoes, carrots, onions, cabbage, pumpkin, and okra. On the other hand, regional companies offer the boarder crops choice on field crops portfolios, including the high nutritious pulses. In addition, most companies provide maize commercially crucial for farmers in the region; contrary, no company reported pigeon pea or chickpea, which could contribute to diverse and nutritious diets in their portfolios.

Beyond global vegetable and field crops, nine regional and global companies offer twenty-one traditional and local crops that are important to smallholder farmers’ access to diverse diets and support the conservation of the local agrobiodiversity. The four homegrown companies are Agriscope Africa (East African Seed), Capstone Seeds, Kenya Seed Company, Zamseed, in addition to Novalliance Group from outside the region. The four global active companies with local crops are Advanta, Rijk Zwaan, Bayer, and East-West Seed.

Open Pollinated Varieties preferred by smallholder farmers continue to dominate the company portfolios for both field and vegetable crops.

The combined technologies and capabilities of regional and global companies contribute to the availability of both OPV and hybrids, but OPVs are widely offered for most crops.

Commercial farming relies on hybrid varieties that are economically more attractive for seed companies as they cannot be reliably re-sowed; hence, they need to be repurchased each growing season. In comparison, smallholder farmers and subsistence farming rely mostly on OPVs that can be re-sowed. Although hybrid seeds lead to higher yields than OPVs, buying new seeds for every crop season increases farmers’ financial burden. Still, companies underperform on strategic prices for smallholder farmers or collaboration with local partners for financial and insurance support.

Regional companies have increased the number of the youngest varieties in the portfolio less than two years.

The age of the youngest variety indicates whether the companies’ research programs are developing and releasing new varieties of crops that can help farmers cope with new pests and diseases or changing weather conditions because of a changing climate. More than 50% of both regional and global companies’ youngest varieties for a crop are less than two years old, which means that the industry is offering farmers recent varieties likely to demonstrate improved traits for the current conditions. This is an excellent improvement for regional companies where varieties younger than two years were at 29% in 2019.

Crops older than five years are still on the market, with regional companies at 27% compared to 32% in 2019. For global companies, varieties older than five years make up 23% of their newer varieties on the market from 20% in 2019. Thus, the industry research and development programs are actively heading in the right direction to contribute safe, healthy and nutritious food production suitable for smallholder farmers.

60% of the companies invest in smallholder farmers adopting improved agriculture technologies, but efforts are geographically disproportionate

60% (19) of the companies report supporting their sales with extension services to smallholder farmers in all index countries, which has improved coverage since 2019. But these company efforts are still geographically disproportionate, as the 2019 and 2016 regional indexes reported.

Extension services such as agronomic and crop protection advice, appropriate application of other agricultural inputs, sustainable farming practices and weather data platforms are beneficial to adopt improved agricultural technologies, including high-yielding crop varieties for increased productivity.

Regional Seed Co shows great efforts in extension services in almost all countries with sales (16) except Burundi. Seed Co’s field teams are active in remote areas to provide agronomy and extension services to small-scale farmers and use TV, radio, digital, and print media programmes. In addition, two global companies Rijk Zwaan (12 countries) and Sakata (10), accompany all their sales with extension services in all countries of their presence in the region. For example, Rijk Zwaan provides smallholder training and advice during field days, E-learnings, and seminars, both through its local distributor network and its crop specialists and sales representatives, reaching 100,000 smallholders in the region.

All 11 index companies in Tanzania offer extension services, while a few companies offer this support for their sales for the rest of the index countries. For example, in Kenya, 10 of 13 companies support their sales with extension services, 9 of 14 companies in Zambia, 9 of 12 in Uganda, with a similar trend in all countries.

Notably, companies are reporting extensions services in Angola (5), South Sudan (3), Namibia (2) and Madagascar (2), completely lacking in the 2019 assessment. In addition, companies are increasing extension services in Lesotho (2) and Eswatini (2); however, no change has been noted in Somalia (1) since 2019.
Although company efforts are promising in offering extension services in the region, the geographic imbalance of seed companies only benefits few smallholder farmers. Companies can increase their efforts to bridge the gap in the region with quality seeds and training support in these countries, which is essential for food security.

Companies report the impact of Covid-19 on extension services, resulting in adopting ICT tools to reach farmers.

Companies generally report significant disruptions to offer extension services to farmers in the region due to the COVID – 19 pandemic. Companies report responses and challenges ranging from financial donations to mitigate the impact of Covid-19, equipping their staff and the farmers coming to field days with personal protective equipment, or canceled field visits due to movement restrictions. In addition, companies relied on digital tools to engage with farmers, such as phones, WhatsApp, emails, and other social media platforms.

Eight countries benefit most from the seed business investments in the region

In Eastern and Southern Africa, companies invest in local seed business activities such as breeding, seed production, and seed processing in 15 countries, but these efforts are concentrated in eight countries. Seed production is a common business activity, although only ten companies contract smallholder farmers, offering additional income and knowledge-sharing opportunities. Nevertheless, companies lack effective systems to monitor performance to comply with their workers’ social and labour rights in seed production.

To develop the local seed sector, companies must invest in essential business activities such as breeding, seed production, and processing in the region. In Eastern and Southern Africa, company efforts and investments in the local seed sector reach up to 15 countries but are concentrated in South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Ethiopia due to favourable business and agroecology environments. However, these investments are entirely lacking in 4 countries leaving behind many smallholder farmers who could contribute to knowledge sharing, skilled workforce and increased income for the many smallholder households.

Of the 32 index companies assessed, only 19 companies have breeding programs in 9 countries. Breeding programs are important for the seed industry to continuously develop new varieties that respond to the market demands and changing weather conditions. Most of the companies set up their breeding programs in South Africa (9 companies), Kenya (5), Zambia (5) and Tanzania (4). Global companies such as Bayer and Corteva Agriscience have a notable presence in five countries each with breeding programs. Regional companies carry out these activities in their home countries mainly except for Seed Co (3), Agriscope Africa (East African Seeds) (3), and Novalliance Group (1) from outside the region. As noted in 2019, global companies still mainly source from their own breeding programs, while regional companies often rely on their own programs and collaborate with research institutes or other companies. The industry’s efforts are shown in the newer seed varieties on the market in 2021 compared to 2019.

Investing in local seed production is an effort to address the availability of quality seeds while advancing the local seed sector. Twenty-six global and regional companies produce seeds in 14 countries through their own facilities and partnerships with local companies or farmer organisations. None of the index companies report investments in Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia. Ten of the 14 companies encourage local seed production by engaging with smallholder farmers to produce seeds. Companies report commitments and policies to ensure social and labour standards in producing seeds in index countries, such as the right not to subject workers to forced labour and child labour and respecting workers’ health and safety. But they lack effective monitoring systems and standards to track their performance. Furthermore, a living wage provides a decent standard of living for workers and their family but no company reports paying a living wage or requiring its intermediaries to do.

Further, seed processing activities are important in the region to prepare the appropriate packages of quality seeds for the market. These investments are equally important for developing the local economy through employment and capacity development. Fifteen of the index companies have processing locations in the region, covering ten countries. Almost half of these companies carry seed processing in South Africa (7) and Tanzania (6). Kenya, Zambia and Malawi have more than three companies present in each country.

The seed sector’s efforts in developing local seed businesses are encouraging, especially for seed production. However, these efforts should be spread out into developing more breeding programs in more countries and establishing more seed processing activities in the region to build a robust local seed industry necessary for food security and improving livelihoods. The role of the seed companies together with the public sector, research, investors and government is critical in addressing market entry constraints in some countries to grow a sustainable and thriving seed sector that benefits smallholder farmers.